After bouncing around for several seasons and nearly losing his place in the NBA, Landry Shamet has been a crucial part of the Knicks’ rotation since last season.
This year, he has emerged as the team’s go-to plug-and-play starter if one of the starting wings is hurt or resting, Stefan Bondy writes for the New York Post. He has clearly earned the trust of head coach Mike Brown, who often turns to Shamet if Mikal Bridges is struggling to find his offensive rhythm, as has been the case throughout the early part of this season.
“With the way our team is built we don’t need anybody to do anything extraordinary. Just go, like Landry said, be yourself, play hard,” Brown said. “It’s not necessarily always how you start games. It’s how you finish. Landry is phenomenal to have as a starter because he’s a two-way player. He has to be guarded and he plays with pace, a lot of other things that we believe in.”
Brown turned to Shamet early in the second half of the Knicks’ loss to the Cavaliers on Wednesday, with Bridges once again struggling to get going on offense. After the game, the championship coach discussed managing the minutes of those two players, plus Miles McBride and Josh Hartthe latter of whom has also struggled offensively this season.
“Part of it is, we’ve got two guys who are playing really well in Landry and Deuce, so it’s gonna be hard to find minutes at times for Mikal, and maybe even at times for Josh, because those two guys are playing at a pretty high level, and not just at the offensive end of the floor but defensively too,” Brown said, per SNY Knicks (Twitter video link). “Landry and Deuce have been a big part of what we’ve done defensively, so if they’re playing at a high level, I gotta keep trying to find ways to get those guys on the floor.”
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Scottie Barnes missed his third straight game with a left adductor injury as the Raptors lost to the Celtics on Wednesday. Prior to the game, he said that he was “progressing well,” according to Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy (Twitter link). He is considered day-to-day, and his status for Thursday’s game against the Sixers is still to be determined.
- The Nets were without young guards Nolan Traore and Mikel Brown Jr. for Wednesday’s win over the Pelicans as both deal with injuries. Another young player who was not with the team is second-year guard Ben Sarafwho was on assignment with the Nets’ G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets. Prior to the game, head coach Jordi Fernandez explained that Saraf wasn’t called up due to travel considerations and how late in the day the team found out that Traore would be unavailable, Brian Lewis notes for the New York Post (Twitter link). Fernandez said that Saraf would be under consideration should Traore and Brown miss more games.
- While the Nets were without Traore and Brown, who have been playing well of late, they got Egor Demin back from a six-game absence due to a right leg bone bruise, and the team responded with a resounding win over the Pelicans, who were coming off the worst loss in franchise history. Demin had 22 points on just eight shots, and the Nets led by as many as 41 before the game ended, visibly frustrating the Pelicans in the process, according to Fiifi Frimpong of the New York Daily News. This marked just the third win of the season for Brooklyn.