As Landry Shamet tears it up for the New York Knicks, it’s important to glom onto two things: Giving him the final roster spot this season was a smart call, and keeping him around last year was even more genius.
Laugh if you must, but the decision to keep Shamet in 2024-25 might just be the type of quiet move that ensures he remains with the Knick beyond 2025-26.
The Knicks will have the flexibility to pay Landry Shamet next summer
Since Shamet already racked up a year of service for New York, it will have his Early Bird rights on him next summer. This means the team can pay him up to 105 percent of the league’s average annual when he hits free agency in 2026.
To be sure, it will almost assuredly not take that much to keep Shamet. The league’s average salary will be approaching $15 million next offseason. But having the flexibility to go that high gives the Knicks a wide berth to pay him. The alternative would have been offering a 120 percent raise on his current salary—barely putting him above the minimum.
It’s almost unsettling how close the Knicks came to not having this option. Shamet may have always been a lock to make the roster this year. Sticking with them last season, however, was no guarantee.
A shoulder injury prior to the start of 2024-25 compelled New York to waive him. Once he was healthy, the front office scooped him back up for the standard roster. Had another squad grabbed him, he would not be eligible for Early Bird rights with the Knicks. Players need two years of uninterrupted service with one team to qualify for them.
Do not underestimate the importance of Shamet’s Early Bird rights for the Knicks
It can be easy to shrug this off as a nothing burger. It’s not.
Shamet has become a key rotation player for a Knicks squad who needs reliability. If you took him off the team right now, they’d be a win or three lighter.
Retaining and acquiring depth is also about to get harder than ever. The Mikal Bridges extension has the Knicks speeding toward the second apron next season if they keep Mitchell Robinson. Entering it should not be seen as taboo, but it will limit the team’s flexibility on the trade market, and most of all, prevent them from spending the mini mid-level exception time they did last summer.
Even if mini-MLE pickups are historically more miss than hit, second-apron squads need every possible swing they can get. Having barely more than a minimum contract to offer Shamet after this season would be a bummer. If he keeps playing this way, there’s no way he’d accept it. He is graduating from the pool of wild-card bargains in real-time.
There is an alternate universe in which this ascent would be a gutting problem for the Knicks. Fortunately, because they were smart enough to keep him last season, his breakout is one they can celebrate without worrying about what it means for his future with the organization.