Landry Shamet has never had this luxury.
Entering his ninth season in the NBA, Shamet is with the same team three years in a row for the first time.
At this point the past two years, he was on nonguaranteed deals and had to fight his way onto the Knicks roster.
Last year, he seemed to be on the outside looking in until Malcolm Brogdon unexpectedly retired, prompting Shamet to win the battle for the last roster spot.
But after emerging as a key bench piece during the championship run, he was rewarded with a four-year, $24 million deal this past offseason.
“It definitely gives you a sense of perspective and appreciation that I’m grateful for,” Shamet said after practice on Wednesday. “To be believed in and have that offered to me, for me and [his fiancée] Cammi to be able to stay here in New York and continue to grow this thing, it’s pretty special. To be asked to be a part of it is humbling and I’m grateful for it every day. It means a lot.”
To finally have certainty and clarity about his standing is freeing — and extremely rewarding.
“In a way, it just makes me proud of myself,” Shamet said. “That’s why you work through the difficult times and the challenging and the questioning ones. Typically, there’s really good stuff on the other end of that. It feels good, it feels good to be a part of this moving forward. I don’t want to drop my level or get complacent or any of that, that’s definitely not the feeling. It’s more, it just feels good to know that you don’t have that heavy wave right on your ass again this training camp.”
Shamet was one of a trio of backup guards — along with Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson — who were free agents this past offseason but opted to return to the Knicks. All three spent various points of last season both in and out of coach Mike Brown’s rotation.
That all three eagerly wanted to be back, despite at times not seeing the court last year, is indicative of a close bond that defines this group.
“We care about each other,” Shamet said. “We want to win for each other. We’re willing to take on different roles and we know that we’ve got each other’s back. If Jose’s got it going and my minutes are shortened, awesome. And vice versa. All of us, Deuce [McBride] included in that, I would throw him in that as well, all of us kind of feel that way. That’s really cool.
“I’ve been saying it, I’ve been a broken record about it, but you don’t see that — from a backup guard position, that’s very rare where no ego or ulterior motives get involved. That’s something special that you want to be a part of.”
