Tag: Toronto Raptors NBA2TampaBay nba Tampa Bay Raptors basketball

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Your Tampa Bay Raptors: Kyle Lowry.

With the Toronto Raptors calling Tampa Bay home, I wanted to put the NBA2TAMPABAY faithful on to their new team. First up we start with the longest tenured and leader of the squad Kyle Lowry.

We need a reverse jersey for “The South” fans.

After small stints with the Grizzlies and Rockets, Lowry made Toronto his home in 2012 after being traded. Once Masai Ujiri was hired as team GM, Lowry and DeRozan became the cornerstones of the team.

Lowry has been one of the East’s top PGs for the past decade.

In this “Baby Dinosaur” era the Raptors often finished in the top 5 of the Eastern Conference, but ultimately fell short by never reaching the NBA Finals. Lowry was named to six all star games during this time proving to be one of the East’s top PG each season.

Lowry is more of a grinder than a flash player. After the departure of DeRozan for Kawhi, Lowry took the mantle has the team leader despite Kawhi being the best player. His experience in the playoffs allowed him to drop knowledge on some of the younger guys like Vanvleet and Siakam.

Despite not being the focus of the club, Lowry is still the leader.

After winning the title, Siakam and Vanvleet have grown into the main focuses of the team with Lowry acting as team leader and mentor. His role is very similar to Steven Stamkos on the Lightning. Can’t wait to see Lowry and the rest of the boys do work this season. His jersey is on my hit list.

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We The South!

The time has come “NBA2TAMPABAY”, the Toronto Raptors are unable to start the 2020 NBA season in their home city of Toronto due to COVID 19 restrictions, choosing Tampa Bay as their host city.

The Tampa Bay Tropics secondary logo.

With other cities like Buffalo, Louisville, and Rochester, all in the running the Raptors organization and the NBA decided to choose Amalie Arena and Tampa Bay. I feel the adjacent location of the Tampa Bay Area with other NBA markets made this a no brainer for the league. A born rivalry between the new Tampa Bay Raptors and the magic and heat with definitely add excitement to the upcoming season.

Amalie Arena is the perfect place for NBA basketball.
The hornets wore “Oklahoma City” jerseys during their season in OKC.

I am hopeful Tampa Bay will be in a similar situation Oklahoma City was before they got the Thunder. Due to Hurricane Katrina the at the time New Orleans Hornets had to play their home games in OKC which at the time did not have an NBA franchise. A few years later the Seattle SuperSonics would relocate to OKC becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The projected Tampa Bay Tropics Jersey.
Fred Vanvleet and Kyle Lowry are two of the Raptors biggest stars.

At this time it is unclear if fans will be allowed to attend games, but either way fans in the Tampa Bay Area have a new sports team to cheer for. The Raptors won the NBA championship two seasons ago so their team is still pretty solid. This a huge step forward in Tampa Bay’s NBA chances in the future, the community should be excited to embrace the team as our own. Thunder Alley is starting to look a lot like Jurassic Park!