The Stress of Landry Shamet Minutes

Every minute Landry Shamet is on the court is stress.

At 27 years old and in what should be the prime of his career—Shamet finds himself on his 6th NBA team in 7 years—as the last man off the bench for the championship-contending New York Knicks.

Yes, I know the Knicks are 0-7 against OKC, Cleveland and Boston but we just watched the Boston Celtics walk into an automatic NBA Finals appearance after the entire Eastern Conference eroded from injuries.

Between Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby—there is more than enough talent in the building to get lucky and make a championship run.

But they can’t make that championship run without Landry Shamet’s 11.4 minutes a night—allowing their Starting 5 to get a breather before Thibs ties them back on the train tracks while he twirls his stereotypical evil-guy mustache.

The last thing Tom Thibodeau wants to do is use his bench. If it were up to him, starters would play all 48 minutes and get kicked off the team if they dared sip water.

No one seems more aware of this than Landry Shamet—who entered the season as a question mark, dislocating his shoulder in early October.

Landry’s career is at a crossroads.

Last season, he played 46 games for the Wizards and this year, he barely made the Knicks roster.

This is Shamet’s last opportunity to prove he can help a title-contending team win games—otherwise, he’ll have to play for a loser like Charlotte or a team with no plan like the Chicago Bulls—hoping maybe he does well enough in the first half of the year to get traded to a better situation but more likely than not, if Landry doesn’t impress Thibs every second he’s out there, it’s over for Shamet.

Every 3-pointer Landry takes has to go in or he could be benched, never to see the floor again until receiving a call from Tel Aviv to run the 2-man weave with Pat Bev.

If he misses a defensive rotation, gone.

If he doesn’t get back on defense, gone.

If he commits a turnover with a bad pass, gone.

Landry Shamet has literally no room for error.

Whenever he checks into the game, it’s like watching someone diffuse a bomb.

Landry Shamet 3, assisted by Brunson pic.twitter.com/4HYhJ5DJdd

— Knicks Highlights (@KnicksClipss) March 5, 2025

Good shot, Landry. Miss the next one and you’ll be Googling “how to get real estate license”.

Can Landry Shamet ultimately help the Knicks win a championship?

Personally, I like Landry Shamet.

He’s played in big games and I like the physical intensity he brings off the bench along with Cam Payne.

The Knicks have a lot, of, hm, how do I put this—podcasters. This starting 5 can get bullied off their block by teams with grown men whose parents weren’t NBA players.

Landry is a steady hand and an adult off the bench who, thanks to the predicament he’s found himself in, has no choice but to be 1000% locked from the second he walks toward the scorer’s table to check-in.

I can only imagine how hard his heart is beating, walking past Chris Rock, Emmy Rossum and the random Ranger player always sitting courtside.

With the team capped out with no roster flexibility, Landry is astronomically more equipped than anyone left at the bottom of the bench. Shout out to Matt Ryan.

I hope Landry has a big playoff moment with the Knicks and finds a steady home in Madison Square Garden like the homeless people who live downstairs in the Penn Station bathroom.

No one should have to go to Guatemala to form a super team with DeMarcus Cousins, or wherever the fuck he’s averaging 80 a night.
 

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