The Eastern Conference’s leader in Win Shares signed a highly publicized free agent contract this past offseason with the East’s best team.
That player is not LeBron James but Kyle Lowry, the undisputed leader of the Toronto Raptors. And it is Toronto – not Cleveland – which has the East’s best record at 18-6.
Lowry and the Raptors are 5-3 without All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, who injured his groin the day after Thanksgiving in a loss to Dallas.
SheridanHoops went one-on-one with Raptors coach Dwane Casey and GM Masai Ujiri to find out how Lowry has been the conference’s MVP thus far and how he eluded the trap of complacency that hinders many players the season after signing large, lucrative contracts.
“He’s done everything,” Casey told SheridanHoops. “He’s defended, loose balls, charges, scored for us; he’s done a little of everything for us, assists, helped other players get their shots. So I’m not surprised to understand that he leads the Eastern Conference in Win Shares, because he does a little bit of everything to help us win.” Here’s the early Win Shares leaderboard in the East, which has Lowry on top and James fourth:
| Eastern Conference Win Shares | Team | Number |
| Kyle Lowry | Toronto | 3.8 |
| Jimmy Butler | Chicago | 3.7 |
| Kyrie Irving | Cleveland | 3.4 |
| LeBron James | Cleveland | 3.3 |
| Kyle Korver | Atlanta | 3.0 |
After Lowry signed a four-year, $48 million contract in July, the man responsible for reeling him in compared Lowry to the expensive vehicle that drives the franchise.
“He’s our Porsche, he’s our everything that makes our team go,” Ujiri told SheridanHoops. “He’s a bulldog, a leader and he’s a winner. And I think he pushes our team, which is what you want in a point guard.”
Lowry himself deflects the praise given to him and usually tries to credit his teammates first.
“To those advanced metrics, thanks. I appreciate it,” Lowry said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just about my teammates and winning games. And all I care about is helping my team win games.”
Here are some more stats that prove Lowry’s worth within the East over the season’s first 24 games:
| Category | Lowry’s Number | East Rank |
| Win Shares | 3.8 | 1 |
| Offensive Win Shares | 3.0 | 1 |
| Win Shares/48 Minutes | 0.217 | 1 |
| Assists | 183 | 2 |
| PER | 22.9 | 2 |
| Made Free Throws | 116 | 3 |
| Free Throw Attempts | 142 | 3 |
| Assists Per Game | 7.6 | 3 |
| Points Scored | 473 | 4 |
| Field Goals | 160 | 6 |
| Points Per Game | 19.7 | 8 |
| Offensive Rating | 119.2 | 9 |
Helping his team win games became a lot harder after DeRozan’s injury, but Lowry’s competitive nature enabled him to be up to the task even without his star running mate.
“He’s a competitive guy,” Ujiri said. “That’s his nature and that’s what we love about him.”
“I don’t think it’s in his DNA to lay down,” Casey said. “He’s too competitive. If he’s playing checkers, he’s going to be ready to fight, or cards, or whatever it is. He wants to win.”
Lowry knows that he can’t make up for the 19 points per game DeRozan scored, but he has been more aggressive in his backcourt mate’s absence, as you will see below.
| Lowry 2014-2015 | G | MPG | FG % | 3 FG % | PPG | APG | RPG | FTAPG | FGAPG |
| With DeRozan | 16 | 33.3 | 45.0 | 31.6 | 18.6 | 6.4 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 13.8 |
| Without DeRozan | 8 | 37.8 | 40.9 | 29.3 | 22.0 | 10.0 | 3.6 | 6.1 | 18.6 |
Lowry has taken on a larger scoring role, which has seen his percentages go down. But the number that really stands out is his assists. In fewer than five more minutes played per game without DeRozan, he’s averaged 3.6 more assists. He has become more of a leader on the floor with DeRozan out, but balancing aggressiveness, patience and pragmatism has been the challenge for him in this situation.
“It just has to come to you,” Lowry said. “You can’t force it, it’s just one of those things where you gotta have the trust in your teammates and the coach has to have trust in you and motivate you and give you confidence to do more.”
Lowry’s leadership on this team extends beyond the actual games and into practices, which has gained him trust and admiration from his teammates.
“I think his professionalism and the way he approaches and respects the game is helping him to be the player he is,” Toronto guard Greivis Vasquez told SheridanHoops. “I still consider myself a young player – this is only my fifth year in the league – and going against a guy like Kyle in practice, a guy who’s been in the league for nine or 10 years, it’s a privilege. And I’m learning, and the way he’s doing it is how All-Stars help teams win games.” 
All-Star players also don’t regress the year after signing a large contract, which is something the Raptors brass knew would not be a problem with Lowry. Why?
“He wants to win, and Kyle said there’s no difference between a contract year and a first year or a third year of a contract or whatever it is,” Ujiri said. “He wants to win basketball games and his goal is to win a championship. So he’s got that drive in him, and you see that.”
Vasquez interrupted with his response before the question could even be completed.
“We see him and the way he approaches every game is unbelievable,” he interjected. “I watch him and I learn from him and he’s doing a great job.”
“I don’t think him signing a big deal is going to allow him, because his personality and his DNA won’t let him,” Casey said.
The coach added that Lowry is really doing everything in his power to help the team win to great success but noted that he is going to watch Lowry’s minutes so that he’s not worn down towards the end of the season and relatively fresh for the postseason. But given the type of team Toronto has, they probably could not have asked for a better start from their newly re-signed franchise player.
“We don’t have a max player on our team. We don’t have a super-superstar,” Casey said.
That might be the one thing Casey has been wrong about when it comes to Lowry, whose advanced rightfully peg him as the East’s early season MVP.
Shlomo Sprung is a national columnist for SheridanHoops who focuses on analytics, profiles and features. He is also the web editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A 2011 graduate of Columbia University’s Journalism School, he has previously worked for the New York Knicks, The Sporting News, Business Insider and other publications. You should follow him on Twitter.
You want to talk about the eastern conference mvp? It’s definitely not Kyle Lowry. He could be in discussion when it comes to eastern conference mvp, but your missing a whole lot of players that’s having a career year. The only reason why his statistics are tweaked is because demar is out and they’ve only gone 5-3 since then. Get his name out your mouth, he just deserves an honorable mention.
Read the article or watch a raptors game. As the author pointed out, hes become less efficient without Demar. Name one player in the wast whose performed better
dumbass…If you dont watch Raps’ ball dont comment on Raps players
Well, who is it then? As of December 16. Who’s your East MVP? To me, it’s clear it’s Lowry. He’s been just incredible from the very beginning of the season, with or without DeRozan. He is true MVP, because he does a little bit of everything, and most of all – he controls the game, the pace, the plays, he’s a true leader. He is Casey’s right hand directly on the court. He is what “most valuable” stands for. But in order to know that, you need to watch games, not stats.