Brooklyn Nets Add To Crowded Guard Rotation With NBA Draft Night Trade For Landry Shamet

The Brooklyn Nets continued to remake their roster and improve their depth in Wednesday night’s NBA Draft, acquiring sharpshooting guard Landry Shamet in a three-way trade with the Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons.

Brooklyn sent the 19th overall pick to Detroit, which sent guard Luke Kennard to Los Angeles, which sent Rodney McGruder to the Pistons and the 23-year-old Shamet to the Nets. The 6-foot-4 Shamet is a strong spot-up shooter who hit 37.5% of his 3-point tries with the Clippers during the regular season and is 40.2% from three for his career during the regular season.

With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving starring in the Nets’ starting five, having players like unrestricted free agent Joe Harris, who Brooklyn hopes to re-sign for a potential reported price tag of $15-20 million per year, and Shamet who are knockdown shooters will be crucial to Brooklyn’s success on the offensive end. Shamet will make just over $2 million next season with a $3.7 million team option for 2021-2022. Drafted by Philadelphia 26th overall in 2018 and dealt to the Clippers in the Tobias Harris trade that winter, Shamet’s 2020 contract is almost exactly what the Nets would’ve paid the 19th pick, as ESPN’s Kevin Pelton astutely points out in his grades for this trade.

Brooklyn was reportedly able to fit Shamet into their cap structure through a trade exception it created earlier in the week when young forward Dzanan Musa was sent in a separate transaction with Detroit for another young playmaking guard in Bruce Brown. Known more for his defensive toughness and versatility, the 24-year-old Brown started 43 games for the Pistons in the pandemic-shortened season, averaging nine points, 4.7 rebounds and four assists in 28.2 minutes per game.

Shamet and Brown are added to a crowded group of Nets guards that already includes Irving, Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie. Brooklyn has to quickly decide on guard Garrett Temple’s $5 million team option and wing Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot’s $1.8 million team option while balancing the talent the roster needs to compete for a championship, having too many players at one position used to a lot of playing time and the team’s financial luxury tax constraints.

Nets general manager Sean Marks clearly isn’t afraid to make bold moves to bring talented players to the roster. But as currently constructed, barring an additional big trade or two, new head coach Steve Nash is going to have an enviable but difficult time making sure his talented glut of guards stays happy.