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Landry Shamet is the sleeper your fantasy basketball team needs

Shamet is in the perfect situation to perform in LA and deserves to be on your fantasy team.

By Natty Wallach
Getty Images/Pete Rogers Illustrations

Let’s talk about a player who’s less than 5% owned on ESPN right now. Landry Shamet was a backup guard in Philadelphia last year, until he was traded to the LA Clippers in the Tobias Harris deal. Shamet ended the season as the 183rd most valuable player in ESPN Basic, averaging for the entire season (both the 76ers and the Clippers) 9+ Points Per Game, 1+ Rebound Per Game, 1+ Assist Per Game, 2+ 3-Pointers Made Per Game, on 42 3PT%, and 43 FG% overall.

After being traded to LA, Shamet’s line was 10+ PPG, 2+ RPG, 2+ APG, and 2.7 3PM on 45 3PT%, and 41 FG% overall. Only 8 players in the NBA had averages of at least 10/2/2 with 2 3PM on at least 40 3PT% shooting: Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Bojan Bogdanovic, Bryn Forbes, Buddy Hield, Danilo Gallinari, Steph Curry, and Brooklyn Joe Harris.

Shamet is now the starting 2-guard for the LA Clippers, where he could average upwards of 30 minutes per game (he averaged 27+ for LA last year), and where he gets to play with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Landry Shamet gets to space the floor for two of the best all around players in the NBA.

But, is Landry Shamet actually good? Let’s take a look at a list:

TS% of 25 and under players in 2019

RANK PLAYER TEAM AGE GP MIN TS%
RANK PLAYER TEAM AGE GP MIN TS%
1 Thomas Bryant WAS 21 72 20.8 67.4
2 Clint Capela HOU 25 67 33.6 65.8
3 Giannis Antetokounmpo MIL 24 72 32.8 64.4
4 Montrezl Harrell LAC 25 82 26.3 63.6
5 Jarrett Allen BKN 21 80 26.2 63.2
6 Domantas Sabonis IND 23 74 24.8 63.0
7 Pascal Siakam TOR 25 80 31.8 62.8
8 John Collins ATL 21 61 30.0 62.7
9 Karl-Anthony Towns MIN 23 77 33.0 62.2
10 Deandre Ayton PHX 20 71 30.7 60.8
11 Landry Shamet LAC 22 79 22.8 60.4
12 Julius Randle NOP 24 73 30.6 60.0
13 Malik Beasley DEN 22 81 23.2 59.9
14 Joel Embiid PHI 25 64 33.7 59.3
15 Jerami Grant OKC 25 80 32.7 59.2
16 Steven Adams OKC 25 80 33.4 59.1
17 Jaren Jackson Jr. MEM 19 58 26.1 59.1
18 Nikola Jokic DEN 24 80 31.3 58.9
19 Bryn Forbes SAS 25 82 28.0 58.6
20 Devin Booker PHX 22 64 35.0 58.4
21 Ben Simmons PHI 22 79 34.2 58.2
22 T.J. Warren PHX 25 43 31.6 58.0
23 Monte Morris DEN 24 82 24.0 57.7
24 Taurean Prince ATL 25 55 28.2 57.5
25 Zach LaVine CHI 24 63 34.5 57.4
26 Jusuf Nurkic POR 24 72 27.4 57.0
27 Marcus Smart BOS 25 80 27.5 56.8
28 Myles Turner IND 23 74 28.6 56.7
29 Willie Cauley-Stein SAC 25 81 27.3 56.6
30 Allonzo Trier NYK 23 64 22.8 56.4

The above is a list of under-25 players last year and their true shooting percentages (20+ Minutes Per Game, 7+ Field Goal Attempts Per Game, 41+ Games Played).

The top 12 players are all 6’9” or taller, except for Landry Shamet, who’s 6’5”.

The top 12 players are all bigs, or dudes who dominate in the paint, except for Pascal Siakam (who’s 6’9”, and is one of the supposed elite wings in the entire NBA) and Landry Shamet. Siakam averaged under three 3PA per game last year; Shamet averaged 6+ 3PA after being traded to the Clippers.

Basically, Landry Shamet shot the ball from long distance as efficiently as any of the young, elite bigs shot the ball overall (which, of course, includes lots and lots of dunks).

That list of 25 year old players and under has some other interesting perimeter players, like Malik Beasley, JERAMI GRANT, Jaren Jackson, Jr., and Bryn Forbes. However, Beasley and Grant are both starting the season as backups on the loaded Denver Nuggets; 3J is on a young, maybe not ultra-crappy Memphis team (they were 30th in pace last year, but one imagines that will get faster this year); and Bryn Forbes is on the Spurs, a bottom-10 pace team (the Clippers were the 7th fastest team last season, though I can see that going down with the new stars now on the team). Meanwhile, Landry Shamet gets to play starters minutes on a team with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Montrezl Harrell, and Sweet Lou Williams.

Shamet was drafted as the heir apparent to JJ Redick as the outside shooter on Philadelphia. The ironic thing is that Philadelphia now has neither Reddick, nor Shamet, but Landry is still the heir to JJ Reddick, it’s just that he’s now the outside shooting threat for JJ’s old-old team, the Clippers.

Landry Shamet is currently being drafted outside of the top 140 on ESPN. He’s 4.1% owned, same as Norm Powell who is a guy you don’t know on the Detroit Pistons, just kidding, on the Toronto Raptors. (No hate to Powell, I like him.) Shamet is basically free, and he could very easily end the season as a top 100 player. If his rookie ratios were real, and his playing time reflects his Clippers numbers from last season, then Landry Shamet is a wide awake sleeper.

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