Landry Shamet could be the New York Knicks’ best acquisition of the year … 2025, that is.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Shamet would join the Knicks on a one-year deal on Saturday and the team confirmed that would be an Exhibit 9 contract (essentially a training camp deal that becomes fully guaranteed shortly after the new year).

Shamet, a 27-year-old first-round pick, is a bit of a project, perhaps getting just one last opportunity to prove he can be an NBA depth staple. According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post, Shamet had his share of suitors and the “expectation” is that he will appear on the opening roster.

Despite struggling with woebegone Washington, Shamet is expected to be a scorer who continues to make up for the sacrifice of Immanuel Quickley, who was sent to Toronto to acquire OG Anunoby.

But don’t the Knicks already have that in Miles McBride and, to a lesser extent, Cameron Payne?

Signing Shamet was a landmark on the Knicks’ late offseason calendar: with his arrival, New York has filled all 15 roster spots for when training camp opens later this month. That more or less pauses their search for a backup center, a role that has remained dangerously unsolved.

While the Knicks had free agents options (i.e. Bismack Biyombo, JaVale McGee), they instead opted to restock the backcourt picture in more ways than one: in terms of both experience and potential, few teams are going to have a better backcourt bench block than the Knicks, whether its domestic use or for bartering abroad.

While it’s a storybook scenario for the former Suns Payne and Shamet to assist Mikal Bridges on a 2021 Phoenix Suns revenge tour, the cold reality is that this far from the final form of the 2024-25 Knicks roster. This is a franchise, after all, that features only three veterans they’ve actually drafted and just five left from the 2022-23 team that started this run in the first place.

It’s also packed on the Knicks’ depth chart as is: Donte DiVincenzo is more than likely coming back to the bench and the Knicks clearly have plans for rookie second-round pick Tyler Kolek. That doesn’t even account for the presence of Josh Hart, who stubbornly, if not humorously views himself as a backcourt contributor despite his paint breakout amidst Julius Randle’s medically-indued departure.

The ultimate whammy is the fact that head coach Tom Thibodeau is notorious for shortening his rotation in marquee settings: if accomplished veterans like Evan Fournier and Derrick Rose can be exiled, it can most certainly happen to the current backcourt projects. This time last year, in fact, McBride was a bit of an afterthought, only brought up to prominence when Quickley was shipped north.

In spite of it all, what Shamet, as well as McBride and Payne, have become are the Knicks greatest assets. The long-lauded draft pick cabinet has been rendered relatively bare by the high-risk, high-reward trade for Bridges, which sent five first-round picks across town to Brooklyn. Each is packed with just enough potential and promise to entice potential teams to entice rebuilding squads look to part ways with teir interior assets (i.e. Walker Kessler in Utah, Robert Williams in Portland).

That’s not to say that all is lost for this group: the Knicks will need all hands on deck to accomplish one of their primary and bolder goals for the 2024-25 season, one that would have them sitting atop the Eastern Conference playoff bracket once its released this spring.

Considering that they finished 14 games behind eventual champion Boston as last year’s runner-up, the Knicks are in no position to throw away any supposedly “meaningless” early games. Early familiarity, both established with Bridges (a member of both the “Nova Knicks and the “PhoeKnicks,” can help the new-look New Yorkers overcome potentially awkward chemistry issues and battle for that crucial spot that would help ensure the road to the Finals would be fully assured of coming through Madison Square Garden … provided the Knicks themselves handle their hand of the bargain, of course.

McBride, Payne, and Shamet all seem destined for further NBA endeavors and progress (especially McBride, who was one of the Knicks’ most prominent depth stars that broke out last season). Time will tell, however, if those Association adventures will be staged in Manhattan.

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