2025 NBA Free Agents: Landry Shamet Has Evolved

With the 2024-25 season nearing its conclusion, it is time to start looking ahead to the offseason. In this article series, we will take a look at under-the-radar options in the 2025 Free Agency Pool. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to focus primarily on unrestricted free agents.

After one year with the New York Knicks, veteran journeyman Landry Shamet is once again an unrestricted free agent. At a glance, Year Seven didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Shamet appeared in 50 games for the Knicks, averaging 5.7 PPG and 39.7% shooting from three.

However, take a deeper look, and you will see that 2024-25 was a year of growth for Shamet. It’s the kind of maturation that makes him one of the best bang for your buck options this offseason.

The Problem With Shamet

Shamet is an excellent shooter, both at a standstill and off of movement. For his career, he is converting on 41.3% of his 6.8 threes per game. Shamet is a dead-eye shooter in a league that loves the three-ball. You’d think that would make him a higher priority for general managers, right?

Well, not necessarily. The Knicks were able to secure Shamet last offseason for the veteran minimum. Part of this is the deterioration of the middle class as a consequence of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement’s first and second apron restrictions.

But the main reason why was that Shamet had developed a reputation as a bad defender. In the playoffs, weak defenders are quickly identified and hunted by the opposing team’s most dangerous offensive players.

From 2019 to 2023, Shamet played in 47 playoff games across four seasons. During that time, his teams (the Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, and Phoenix Suns) were always better when he was on the bench, and there was only one run where he did not carry a negative on-court rating.

So, teams couldn’t profit off Shamet’s gifts as a shooter/spacer because the tax that he was forcing them to pay with his defense was too expensive. This relegated him to being an 82-game player rather than a 16-game one, which limited his value to prospective teams.

Shamet Is Not A Bad Defender Anymore

That brings us to the genesis of this whole story. Shamet is no longer a terrible defender. In fact, he is quite passable on that end of the ball now.

By my eye, that shift started last year with the Washington Wizards (although the one-number metrics don’t totally agree with this). However, because of their abysmal record (15-67), that improvement went largely unnoticed.

This year, the whole world got a front-row seat at Shamet’s ascension during the Eastern Conference Finals. Shamet logged two DNP-CDs to start the series, but he was thrust into the rotation in Game 3. From that point on, he provided a great boost to the Knicks with his shooting…and his suddenly stifling defense.

That wasn’t just a one possession explosion. His tape is littered with moments of defensive brilliance (like this). His two-way contributions were so helpful to the Knicks that Shamet led the team in plus-minus for the final four games of the series.

This development changes everything for Shamet. Teams no longer need to worry about him being neutralized in the playoffs because of his defense. Now, they can enjoy the benefits created by his shooting without the issues his defense used to create.

This doesn’t make Shamet a starting-caliber player on a good team. But an eighth man in a playoff rotation? He definitely could fill that role. Heck, he just did that for a Knicks team that came within two wins of the NBA Finals.

And thanks to the outdated perception of him as a player (and the financial constraints created by the new CBA), one lucky team can get him for close to the veteran minimum.