Landry Shamet has gone from roster afterthought to one of the Knicks’ most dependable pieces, and Mike Brown is leaning into it.
Since last season, Shamet has carved out a real role in New York after spending several years bouncing around and nearly slipping out of the league. This season, he’s become the obvious next man up whenever one of the starting wings needs a night off or can’t go. Brown has also shown a clear willingness to go to Shamet when Mikal Bridges is stuck in an offensive rut, which has been the case early this year.
“With the way our team is built we don’t need anybody to do anything extraordinary. Just go, like Landry said, be yourself, play hard,” Brown said.
“It’s not necessarily always how you start games. It’s how you finish.
Landry is phenomenal to have as a starter because he’s a two-way player. He has to be guarded and he plays with pace, a lot of other things that we believe in.”
That trust showed up again Wednesday against the Cavaliers, when Brown went to Shamet early in the second half after Bridges again had trouble getting untracked on offense. Afterward, Brown talked about balancing the minutes of Bridges, Shamet, Miles McBride and Josh Hart, with Hart also struggling at the offensive end this season.
“Part of it is, we’ve got two guys who are playing really well in Landry and Deuce, so it’s gonna be hard to find minutes at times for Mikal, and maybe even at times for Josh, because those two guys are playing at a pretty high level, and not just at the offensive end of the floor but defensively too,” Brown said, per SNY Knicks (Twitter video link). “Landry and Deuce have been a big part of what we’ve done defensively, so if they’re playing at a high level, I gotta keep trying to find ways to get those guys on the floor.”
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division, Scottie Barnes sat out his third straight game with a left adductor injury as the Raptors fell to the Celtics on Wednesday. Before the game, Barnes said he was “progressing well,” according to Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy (Twitter link). He remains day-to-day, and his status for Thursday against the Sixers has not been settled yet.
The Nets were also shorthanded Wednesday, missing young guards Nolan Traore and Mikel Brown Jr. in their win over the Pelicans because of injuries. Ben Saraf, another young guard, was away from the club while on assignment with the Long Island Nets.
Before the game, Jordi Fernandez said Saraf wasn’t brought up because of travel issues and because the team learned so late that Traore would be unavailable, Brian Lewis notes for the New York Post (Twitter link). Fernandez added that Saraf would be in the mix if Traore and Brown are out again.
Brooklyn did get Egor Demin back after a six-game absence with a right leg bone bruise, and the return paid off in a big way. Demin scored 22 points on only eight shots as the Nets rolled past the Pelicans, who had just suffered the worst loss in franchise history.
Brooklyn led by as many as 41 and left the Pelicans visibly frustrated. It was only the Nets’ third victory of the season.
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Mike Brown Sounds Off After Knicks Loss Raises Brunson Concern
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Mike Brown did not hide his irritation afterward, pointing to the officiating and the disparity at the stripe as a major issue. For a Knicks team trying to keep pace in a tight stretch, the concern is not just the result itself but whether Brunsons night without a free-throw attempt becomes part of a bigger pattern worth watching. [Read more 🡒]