The Emergence of Landry Shamet: The Story of a Sleeper
76ers rookie guard Landry Shamet has quietly put together a remarkable rookie season after being selected late in the 2018 NBA Draft. After 51 games, it has become clear that his outstanding play within a weak Sixers second unit is no fluke, and it seems all but confirmed that he will garner solid minutes off the bench come playoff time. This didn’t happen overnight for Shamet, however. Here’s his story.
In order to tell this story correctly, I have to take you back to the beginning of the 2015-16 college basketball season. Shamet is a freshman at Wichita State university looking to find his way into the starting lineup. After just three games, he suffers a devastating foot injury that sidelines him for the rest of the year, causing him to “redshirt” his freshman year and wait for the next season.
It’s safe to say that Shamet’s college career got off to an unfortunate start, and probably one that many guys wouldn’t be able to recover from (much less turn into a path to the NBA.) Nontheless, after recovering from his injury, Shamet was determined to make an impact in his second year. Shamet earned conference freshman of the year as the team’s starting point guard, but was not quite on the radar of NBA scouts at any point.
Shamet returned to Wichita for his sophomore season with bigger things on his mind. But this wasn’t before he suffered another setback, fracturing the fifth metatarsal in his left foot during the summer. Luckily, after months of rest and therapy, Shamet was able to return for the Shockers for one last dance in 2017-18. Under the guidance of highly-esteemed head coach Greg Marshall, Shamet improved in almost every statistical category, netting 15 points per game and leading his conference in assists. After bowing out in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Shamet had garnered enough attention from scouts and the media to declare for the upcoming draft, and declare he did.
Initially, scouts weren’t quite sure what to make of Shamet. Was he a tall point guard? Was he a shooting guard? There was an endless list of questions about his NBA fit. Scouts also looked closely at his history of injury, which has ruined the promising careers of so many of the NBA’s elite young players. A combination of all of these factors led him to be passed on by every single team holding a pick in the top 15. With the 76ers on the clock at pick 26, there was reportedly no real decision to make. Shamet was their guy.
And so began Landry’s journey to the NBA. The team inked him to a two year deal with a team option on the third and fourth years on July 4th. As training camp began, Shamet’s fit with the team once again came into question. At 6’5″, Shamet was an awkward fit to assume the same ball handling role he did in college, especially with Ben Simmons manning the position so well in his rookie year. What wasn’t in question, however, was whether or not Landry could shoot the ball. The coaching staff began to mold Shamet into a catch and shoot threat who could come off of screens and knock down shots when they mattered. Since entering the league, Shamet has done just that off of the Sixers bench. Have a look at what he was able to do in his best game of the season this year vs. Washington, as he poured in a career high 29 points on an unbelievable 8 deep balls.
What sells me on Shamet the most is his fearlessness with the ball in his hands. The guy isn’t afraid to shoot and miss, and there probably isn’t a trait more valuable than that for a rookie shooting guard trying to learn the ropes of the league. Something that plagues rookies is the phenomena of missing shots turning into passive and nervous play for extended periods of time, sometimes weeks and months. To go along with that, Landry has had the privilege of learning from one of the NBA’s greatest three point shooters of the last decade in JJ Redick everyday at practice, something that he surely doesn’t take for granted.
You really don’t have to look past the stat sheet to evaluate Shamet’s impact on the floor, and one could easily argue that he’s been the team’s most productive player not in the starting lineup. Through 41 games, Shamet became the first NBA player in history to hit at least 90 threes on 40% shooting, a random yet somewhat relevant statistic. With his 5 three point attempts per game, far above average for a player who plays around 20 minutes each night, Shamet sits at second in rookie three point percentage and in 1st for the 76ers. His efforts didn’t go unnoticed by the Association in selecting players to participate in All-Star Weekend’s “Rising Stars Challenge,” as he came up just short of making the USA roster.
As the regular season hits its last 2 months, look for Shamet to continue his unrelenting style of play off of Brett Brown’s bench, and you just might see him on the floor for that big shot with the game on the line for the red, white, and blue. Plan on listening to plenty more of “Landryyy Shh Shhh SHAMET” echoing throughout Wells Fargo Center as public address announcer Matt Cord uses his signature call for a bucket by the rookie.
Featured Image + Image 2: Philadelphia 76ers Photography Images 1: Matt Crow / The Sunflower
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