Nets: Let’s not make Landry Shamet the scapegoat after two straight losses
By Mike Luciano
Landry Shamet needs time to grow into his role with the Nets.
Fans of teams that contend for championships will often tend to single out one player as the reason for any misstep, especially if the team’s superstars are beyond reproach. Now that the Brooklyn Nets have lost two straight games, one of which involved the Nets playing without three starters in Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Spencer Dinwiddie, fans are starting to tear into Landry Shamet, who is shooting an almost impossibly poor 19 percent from the field through four games.
Considering that Shamet was acquired for a first-round pick that eventually turned into Villanova stretch forward Saddiq Bey, Nets fans are, justifiably, expecting more from a player that will take on an increased role following the Dinwiddie injury. While this isn’t what Nets fans want to hear, Shamet needs to be allowed to work through his mistakes, as some of the criticism towards his slow start is a bit too harsh.
Landry Shamet shot 0-of-9 from the field last game, got on the court early today, got some shots up and drilled his first shot of the night: A three that stopped the bleeding for the Nets.
— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) December 29, 2020
Landry Shamet isn’t falling out of the rotation anytime soon
Shamet was an invaluable member of the Los Angeles Clippers’ rotation over the last few years, averaging 9.8 points per game while shooting 40 percent per game. When he joined Brooklyn, Shamet joined a team that is trying to be a facsimile of Mike D’Antoni’s “7 Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns offense, with the man himself and the point guard orchestrator in Steve Nash on Brooklyn’s coaching staff.
With all of that offensive coaching knowledge around him, are we supposed to believe Shamet got his talent sucked out of him? He’ll break out of this soon enough.
In a year where training camp and the preseason was abysmally short, and in a season that saw Shamet traded to Brooklyn during a November draft that normally would’ve been five months earlier, let’s not read too much into one lousy four-game stretch. All shooters have stretches like this, Shamet’s just happened to come at an inopportune time for the Nets.
Yes, Shamet has been objectively terrible in four games with Brooklyn. No one is doubting that. However, this is an ascending young shooter who was a valuable role player in LA last season that has the privilege of being coached by Nash and an offensive savant in D’Antoni. He’ll pick up his percentages, Nets fans just need to let him score his way out of the doghouse.
