DeMar DeRozan will be a free agent for the first time in his career but he says it will be "pretty tough" for a team to sign him away from the Toronto Raptors.

"My whole mindset has always been this is home for me," DeRozan said. "I never think otherwise unless it's brought up to me, or you see things, or people ask you about certain things.

"This has always been home to me. I took pride in putting on this Toronto Raptors jersey since I've been drafted here. And my whole goal was to get this team to the point where it is now. And I feel I've been a major key to that."

The Los Angeles Lakers are planning to offer DeRozan a max contract.

Kyle Lowry is confident the Raptors will be able to re-sign DeRozan.

"He will be a free agent," Lowry told ESPN Radio. "That's the best thing for him to do. And for me as a friend -- as a friend -- and what he did for me during my free agency, I'll do the same thing. I will just listen and sit back. I won't give him no advice, and I won't push him anywhere. Because, as a friend, friendship comes before basketball, and that's my guy.

"Wherever he makes a decision to go -- and I'm hoping it's back here, which I think it's gonna be -- I won't push him or persuade him or anything. I'll just say: 'Hey, listen, bro. I'm here to listen to you.'"