Five daily thoughts: Kyle Lowry’s Heat debut and more

It’s game day again, and they’re coming on fast now, aren’t they? The Toronto Raptors play the Boston Celtics tonight and the Dallas Mavericks tomorrow, and then it’s every day for a week. Phew!

1. Favourite Son

Kyle Lowry made his Miami Heat debut last night, and, well, it was the most Kyle Lowry debut ever:

Lowry finished with 5 points was +22 as the Heat blew out the Bucks by 42.

Lowry was also in the New York Times yesterday, being interviewed by Jonathan Abrams. It’s a very Kyle Lowry interview but this part warmed my heart, as I’m sure it will do yours:

One day, Lowry expects to retire as a Raptor. Until then, he expects his former teammates to grow into the roles he and DeRozan once occupied.

“Freddy, OG, Pascal, now they have to take the interviews, and they have to do all the media. Because I’m the guy who was like, ‘Yo, it’s on me,’” he said, adding: “They have to take the criticism, and that’s what’s going to help them grow. I want them to be the All-Stars. I want them to be the champions again. I want them to get opportunities to create generational wealth.”

See you in February, Kyle.

2. Takin’ it back to ’95

A week or so ago nba.com released a short film by Kathleen S. Jayme that traces the origins of the original logos for the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzles. It’s called Born Identities and its well worth 10 minutes of your time.

Check out Born Identities here.

My favourite part of the short is when designer Tom O’Grady describes just adding more and more to the Raptors logo, at the behest of original owner John Bitove Jr., to the point where O’Grady says he threw in “everything and the kitchen sink” — and then John said it was perfect. Indeed!

Also, watching that… I kinda want a vintage Grizzlies jersey now!

3. NBA 75, or 76, or whatever it’s never enough

I know I said this list wasn’t getting worked up over, but the inclusions of Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis seem pretty suspect to me. Recency bias is real! That bias works in the other direction too, which is the only reason to leave Dwight Howard off this list; his cartoonish immaturity that hasn’t left him even in the twilight of his career has people thinking he wasn’t the most dominant defensive force in the league for like six straight years.

And it’s not like I like Dwight Howard. He seems like a complete tool. But it’s hard for me to look at his resume and not think he deserves to be on this list.

4. “Not surprised, but still always amazing”

Stephen Curry put on another show last night, dropping 45 points in a Warriors win over the Clippers.

That included a perfect first quarter:

The Steph Curry show rarely disappoints.

5. Shameless plug alert

Have you caught up on our 2021-22 Player Preview series? We’ve got your final two entries coming today, featuring Chris Boucher and Fred VanVleet, but you can catch up on the other 15 guys right here.

As always, let us know your thoughts on our content in the comments! We love to hear what you think of the work we’re doing, what we can do better, and what’s missing from our content.