SAN ANTONIO — One of the Knicks’ biggest postseason contributors came into the season on a non-guaranteed contract.
Through the first two games of the NBA Finals, Landry Shamet has scored 13 points off the bench in each game, hitting key 3s for the Knicks during their second-half rallies.
His Finals performance comes after scoring 30 points in the last two games of the conference finals, including a 16-point performance against the Cavaliers in Game 4 when he hit all four of his 3s in the clinching game.
While the Knicks have built a championship-caliber roster through the free-agent signing of Jalen Brunson and multiple blockbuster trades, the team has also developed depth by hitting on second-round picks Deuce McBride, Mitchell Robinson and Tyler Kolek, and fliers like Shamet.
After averaging 9.3 points per game on 44 percent shooting, including 39% from 3, Shamet made his case as the best player in the NBA this season signed to the veteran minimum of $3 million.
Despite respectable numbers the prior season, New York could only offer Shamet a non-guaranteed contract for 2025–26 because the team’s $207 million salary was just $250,000 under the second apron.
“His whole career, he’s been a journeyman,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said Friday after Game 2. “Again, I wasn’t with him the whole time but he probably deserved more of an opportunity. Because what he does out on the floor on both ends is very, very hard to find in this league, especially at his size, with his mental toughness and his physical toughness. You know, we gave him an opportunity and showed him we loved him. He embraced it, and he ran with it.”
When Shamet first signed with the Knicks in 2024, they were his sixth team in seven seasons. Shamet was drafted by the Sixers in 2018, traded to the Clippers halfway through his rookie seasons and had stints on contending teams in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Phoenix before spending a year with the Wizards.
In July 2024, the Wizards waived Shamet with a year left on his four-year, $42 million rookie extension. The Knicks signed him to a one-year, $2.4 million contract a few months later, but had to release him after he dislocated his shoulder in a preseason game. But the team found a way to hold onto him, by selecting him in the G League draft and re-signing him in December 2024 for $1.6 million.
Shamet averaged 5.7 points per game last season on 46% shooting and 40% from 3, but stayed unsigned until September when the Knicks signed him right before training camp. But he had a big fan much earlier in Brown, who kept finding himself fixated on the 6-foot-5 shooting guard while watching him during the interview process.
“When I first got the job, I called Landry. I said, ‘Hey I want you here. I’m sorry about the way the circumstances are contractually, I have nothing to do with that,’” Brown said during his pregame press conference on Friday. “But I believe you can help us. You can help us on both ends of the floor.
Brown said that he spoke about Shamet with Knicks president Leon Rose when he was still interviewing for the job and that adding him to the roster was “really important” to him.
The Kansas City native wasn’t even considered a lock to make the team when he signed. Shamet had to compete against Garrison Matthews and Malcom Brogdon for the final roster spot. Brogden retired and the Knicks chose Shamet over Matthews.
Shamet hasn’t really acknowledged his incredible run to reporters.
“My job is my job, and it remains the same: to be ready for whatever situation or moment you’re asked to step into, and that’s the only thing I think about,” Shamet said after Game 1 on Wednesday. “I’m not thinking about how it started, anything in the past. … We’ll do the whole reflection and look back thing when it’s all said and done.”
The Knicks have been smart in retaining Shamet to this point, but it will be harder to do so this summer. The 29-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent and could command the taxpayer mid-level exception, which is projected to be around $6 million, if not more. The Knicks and their $205 million payroll will likely be close to the second apron of the salary cap.
“He signed late because his agent convinced him to do that,” Brown joked Friday. “Hopefully it won’t happen going forward.”
Shamet’s postseason has all but ensured it won’t.
