same shoulder he separated last preseason<\/a>, an injury that cost him the first two months of last year and led the Knicks to waive him before re-signing him midseason once he\u2019d recovered.<\/p>\n\u201c[He\u2019s a] guy who worked so hard to get back and has been playing great,\u201d said Jalen Brunson. \u201cIt\u2019s just tough, but knowing him he\u2019s going to be back better than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The timing couldn\u2019t be worse \u2014 for Shamet or the Knicks<\/p>\n
Individually, Shamet had just carved out real equity with Mike Brown: dependable bench piece, trusted spot starter, and a seamless fit in Brown\u2019s pace-and-space scheme. His blend of perimeter gravity and defensive toughness was stabilizing a rotation already searching for continuity.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost we hope he\u2019s good,\u201d Josh Hart said. \u201cMore so mentally\u2026 someone like Lan, someone who\u2019d been battling and feel like it\u2019s just a freak accident here and there. So it\u2019s tough. Now it\u2019s like they say, next man up, and we\u2019ve got to figure out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collectively, his loss hits even harder.<\/p>\n
The Knicks were already without OG Anunoby (hamstring) and Miles McBride (illness). Shamet\u2019s exit three minutes into the game left New York down three perimeter defenders in a matchup already tilted toward Orlando\u2019s physical, drive-heavy style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna keep preaching: it\u2019s about next-man up,\u201d head coach Mike Brown said after the game. \u201cIn our case it\u2019s next-man up, next-man up, next-man up or something like that. We have to have guys ready to play especially some guys that hadn\u2019t played minutes. They don\u2019t have to come in and do a lot. They just have to come in and play hard and continue trying to play the way that we play on both ends of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shamet\u2019s teammates know what this injury means<\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges said he caught Shamet at halftime and saw his spirits were intact \u2014 a small win considering the circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he was OK\u2026 As long as he\u2019s OK, his mental is OK,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cJust praying for the best and hoping everything is okay. Definitely going to need him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bridges and Shamet share a bond from their days in Phoenix, which only magnified the frustration in his voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWouldn\u2019t want that for anybody, to go down and get hurt in the game, especially Landry I\u2019m close with and dealing with probably the same shoulder thing,\u201d he said. \u201cJust praying for the best and hoping everything is okay, Definitely going to need him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Shamet misses extended time, the Knicks have a problem<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s margin for error was already shrinking. Shamet is averaging 9.3 points on 42.4% from three, his second-highest clip of his career. He\u2019s one of the Knicks\u2019 few true three-and-D specialists \u2014 the exact profile Brown\u2019s motion-heavy system relies on to balance Brunson and Towns.<\/p>\n
If Shamet has to miss extended time, there\u2019s no one-for-one replacement left on New York\u2019s roster. The Knicks already handed Anunoby a two-week recovery timeline beginning on his Nov. 12 injury date, and Shamet is the only other bona fide three-and-D wing on the depth chart.<\/p>\n
Without him, the Knicks are in a bind \u2014 at least until Anunoby returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously how valuable he is. But it\u2019s next guy,\u201d said Bridges. \u201cNext guy has to step up. A lot of guys in the locker room that\u2019s ready. Just next man up honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO \u2014 Uh oh. That\u2019s not good. Landry Shamet never saw Wendell Carter Jr. coming. Three minutes into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5824,30917,2295,35707,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-58460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-knicks","9":"tag-landry-shamet","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-og-anunoby","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}