According to beat reporter extraordinaire Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the Cleveland Cavaliers have signed restricted free agent guard Kyle Lowry to a 4-year contract worth $24 million.
The offer is for three years with a fourth-year team option that could make the contract worth up to $24 million. The Cavs are using a portion of their midlevel exception to sign Lowry. The Rockets have said they intend to match reasonable contract offers for Lowry.
It is unclear at this point whether the Cavs loaded the contract with a signing bonus or other incentives that would make it harder for the Rockets to match.
As Windhorst notes, the Rockets have been quite upfront about their intentions to retain both Lowry and free agent power forward Luis Scola. Lowry has been a good fit with the Rockets’ second unit since being acquired in a three-team deal two years ago.
Certainly, unless the contract is hiding a few major incentives, the Rockets will match. $6 million per year (roughly) is not an unreasonable amount for the former Villanova Wildcat.
Since Lowry is a restricted free agent, he doesn’t have much control of his own destiny – this will be settled by the two teams involved. The Rockets have seven days to match the offer sheet. Look for them to wrap this up quickly.
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