Sixers’ Shamet has earned his keep in preseason
CAMDEN, N.J. >> One by one Tuesday night, the 76ers will step out of a locker room and onto the most famous floor in pro basketball. As they do, Landry Shamet, once again, will have proven himself correct.
He will be an NBA player, with the chance to be an important one to a team with a stated goal to play for a championship. He’ll be the lone active first-year professional player on a team carrying a 16-game regularseason winning streak, and given the way he performed in the preseason, he will be so on merit.
“I’ve always believed in myself,” Landry said, after practice at the Sixers’ training center. “One of my teammates at Wichita State, (Toronto Raptor) Fred Van Vleet, had a motto: Bet on yourself. And we talked predraft, and I liked his little motto there. So I bet on myself because I know what I am capable of.”
Shamet was a first-round draft choice with the accompanying contract guarantees, so it is less than jaw-dropping news that he would have an Opening Night roster spot. But Draft Night was not without angst for Shamet, who’d watched
25 others try on ill-fitting caps before the Sixers took him at 26. By then, the Sixers already had chosen Mikal Bridges at No. 10 overall, then traded him for Zhaire Smith at No. 16. So by the time Shamet was selected, there was two-ply proof that the Sixers had other rookieclass priorities.
But for what must be something of a hazing ritual for Sixers rookies, Smith broke his foot in an offseason camp, then never made it to training camp. Nor is there any clarity for when Smith (foot) may return to basketball activities. With that, and with Jerryd Bayless out with a knee injury, options opened for Shamet, who at 6-5 would have been somewhere similar in the perimeter-player depth chart mix as the 6-4 Smith.
“You can see how I am excited to continue to play Landry Shamet,” Brett Brown said. “I’m going to continue to do that.”
Shamet used the preseason to build that excitement. In four preseason games, he averaged 18.1 minutes and 8.8 points, while defending with precision. In a 120-114 victory over Dallas in China, Shamet shot
6-for-11 for 18 points, playing to a plus-eight. And in a 120-114 (yes, same score) victory over Orlando in the Sixers’ only home preseason game against NBA competition, he made an early impression with 12 points in
19 minutes.
“For me, personally, it has gone about as well as it could have,” Shamet said. “I had a lot of early opportunities to show I could be trusted. That was my whole thing, to show that I could be trusted and find my role. But it is still early. I still get my butt kicked in practice. So I think it went as well as it could have.”
While Shamet’s shooting form is pure, and as such in vivid contrast to some others likely to win time at the off-guard spot, it was his defense that allowed him to win a job.
“Coach Brown is huge on defense,” he said. “And that was comfortable for me coming from Wichita State. Greg Marshall was the same way: If you’re not going to defend, you’re not going to play. So that was my first priority. I know shooting is what I do. So when shots come to me, that’s kind of second nature. So I wanted to stress the defensive end. Because that’s what you can control. That was first on my agenda.”
Since the Sixers made only modest moves at the top of their roster after a
52-win season, there was room only at the bottom. But if there was the prototypical training-camp surprise, it was Shamet, who showed enough confidence and skill not just to collect that first-round money, but to make a difference.
“To me, the only thing I was worried about was trying to get better,” he said. “I didn’t surprise myself. That’s kind of how I looked at it. I know what I am capable of.
“And I know I have more in me. Because that still wasn’t the best version of Landry Shamet. There’s always more.”
That much, he would bet on.
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NOTES >> The Sixers, who’d been practicing late in the afternoon and into the early evening since returning from China in a sportsscience directive to mitigate the travel complications, were off Sunday. They will resume practicing Monday in their regular mid-morning routine, then charter to Boston … Mike Muscala (ankle) declared himself “doubtful” for the Celtics game Tuesday … Ben Simmons missed practice Saturday with a sore neck, believed to be from a sleeping position, but that does not appear serious … Wilson Chandler is still battling a hamstring injury … Cory Jefferson, Darin Johnson and Emeka Okafor were waived Saturday, reducing the roster to 17, including Shake Milton and Demetrius Jackson, who are on two-way contracts.