Landry Shamet, the Clippers’ rookie shooting guard who began his first year in the NBA with the Sixers before being traded in the Tobias Harris deal, was named to the All-Rookie Second Team on Tuesday.
Shamet received 79 second-team votes and three first-team votes, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, finishing eighth overall in All-Rookie team voting points:
The Sixers drafted Shamet out of Wichita State with the No. 26 overall pick in last summer’s draft, and the 6-foot-5 guard showed plenty of promise in his first year in the NBA.
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According to Basketball-Reference, on the whole this year Shamet averaged 9.1 points per game in 22.8 minutes per game, shooting 42.2% from deep and 80.6% from the free throw line.
He averaged 8.3 points per game in 20.5 minutes per game while shooting 40.4% from deep in 54 games with the Sixers, then averaged 10.9 points per game in 27.8 minutes per game while shooting 45.0% from deep in 25 regular-season games with the Clippers. Shamet averaged 7.7 points in 29 minutes per game while shooting 32.3% from deep in six playoff games.
On Feb. 6, the Sixers traded Shamet, Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, and four draft picks to the Clippers for Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, and Mike Scott.
The three players the Sixers received in return were all relatively productive in their own rights. Harris became a solid and capable, if streaky, third-or-fourth scoring option. Marjanovic was useful (and hilarious) during the regular season, but became borderline unusable in the playoffs because of his defense. Scott was a tremendous three-point threat and energy guy in the regular season and postseason, and quickly became a fan-favorite.
On the other side, the uptick in Shamet’s playing time and production after the trade was no surprise. Shooters play better when they have more touches and more opportunities to get in rhythm, and the Clippers had fewer superstars keeping minutes away from Shamet.
At just 22 years old, Shamet needs work on the defensive end, but he has clear and serious upside in a league that has fallen in love with the three-point shot:
Taken entirely, the trade was an overpay for a chance to win now from Sixers general manager Elton Brand. It’s hard to criticize the move as a whole, and in this writer’s opinion, it was a risk worth taking in a then-uncertain Eastern Conference.
But it will take a lot of money to keep Harris beyond this season. If Brand fails to keep Harris in Philadelphia, while we acknowledge the idea of letting sunk costs be sunk costs, the trade will likely be looked upon by some fans as a mismanagement of assets and young talent, especially if Shamet keeps looking productive and promising.
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