Nets: Grading Brooklyn’s 2020 Draft picks and moves
By Mike Luciano
The Brooklyn Nets surprised many on draft night, trading away a first-round pick for Landry Shamet.
With or without James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets have one of the most star-studded rosters in the league. Steve Nash went into the 2020 NBA Draft with the intention of adding a few role players that can give this team some added depth, and the Nets can certainly claim to have checked that box after some more draft day wheeling and dealing from their crafty front office.
The 19th pick in the draft, one of two picks Brooklyn originally started the evening with, ended up in the hands of the Detroit Pistons when it was all said and done, as the Nets flipped it in a three-way deal that sent Luke Kennard to the Los Angeles Clippers while netting Brooklyn guard Landry Shamet in return.
Sources: The Clippers are sending No. 19 pick via Brooklyn to the Pistons and receiving Luke Kennard. Nets received Landry Shamet.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 19, 2020
While teams in the competitive Atlantic Division like the Sixers and Raptors also had productive draft nights, did the Nets manage to outdo their hated rivals?
How did the Brooklyn Nets make out on what was a chaotic draft night?
Pick 19: Traded for SG Landry Shamet
While the Nets could’ve added another stretch forward or a young backup guard with this pick, they decided to trade it for a quality role player in Shamet. Adding Shamet doesn’t necessarily mean that Joe Harris is gone in free agency, but it does give Brooklyn quite the insurance policy. Shamet, who was originally a Philadelphia 76ers youngster before being traded to LA in the Tobias Harris deal, has averaged 9.2 points per game in his career, all the while hitting threes at a 40 percent clip.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Nash wants to play a high-octane, “shoot it if you got it” offense. In schemes like that, guards who can lock down on the perimeter before hitting a contested jumper on the other end become even more valuable, and those two traits had to be what sold Sean Marks on Shamet.
Shamet has already proven in his young career that he can be a solid role player on a team that has championship aspirations. At just 23 years old, there is reason to suspect his best basketball is ahead of him. However, the No. 19 pick is a few picks away from the lottery, and it’s possible that the Nets could’ve ended up with a player that is just a notch better if they were intent on trading the pick.