2023 Phoenix Suns Player Review: Despite one memorable playoff game, overall Landry Shamet disappointed

Welcome to our Phoenix Suns Season in Review series where we do individual PLAYER REVIEWS of each man that contributed in the 2022-23 season. We go through the roster to analyze what went right/wrong for them, and what they can do to get better for next season.

Welcome (or welcome back!) to our series recapping the individual performance of the members of the Phoenix Suns this past season. Today we’re looking back at the campaign of Landry Shamet, who is now gone as part of the trade to acquire Bradley Beal but who still requires a rewind.

Landry Shamet

• Position: Shooting guard
• Vitals: 6’4” tall, 190 pounds, 26 years old
• Experience: 5 years
• Stats (regular season): 8.7 PPG, 2.3 APG, 1.7 RPG, 37.7 FG%, 37.7 3PT%, 88.2 FT%

Regular Season Recap:

Shamet’s second and final season as a Sun was marked by injury and inconsistency. He missed time in stretches throughout the year, most notably with a foot injury that kept him out from mid-January until mid-March. He managed to play in just 40 games, but was (for some reason) a favorite of Monty Williams, earning 20 minutes per game despite play that was riddled with lengthy cold streaks shooting and some pretty poor defense to go with it.

Shamet’s season was so frustrating because he wasn’t consistently horrible, but would flash glimpses of what he could be at his best. In particular, he had two games just a few nights apart in late December in which he scored 31 points apiece, hitting nine threes in one game and seven in the other.

After that second 31 point effort on Christmas, battling the injuries that would follow, Shamet really didn’t have a particularly good game again for the rest of the season.

In his 15 games played in January, March, and April, Shamet averaged just 7.4 points per game while shooting just 33% from the floor. And while, yes, many of those attempts were threes, don’t let it fool you: his true shooting percentage was an abysmal 47%.

Postseason Recap:

Shamet’s struggles continued in the playoffs, as he averaged fewer than 5 points per game on a true shooting percentage of 51% .

He had one shining moment, though. In Game 4 against the Denver Nuggets, with the Suns down two games to one, Shamet came through for 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting to help overcome a fantastic Nikola Jokic performance and pull the Suns back to even in the series.

But then in the final two games of the series (and the Suns’ season) he scored a total of 15 points on 5-of-17 shooting.

Put a bow on Shamet’s Phoenix career.

Strengths:

Oh boy. This is awkward.

As brutal as it is to say, Shamet really didn’t showcase any particular strengths this season. He’s an average team defender most of the time, but this season we saw him frequently lose awareness and get victimized within the defensive scheme, to well-deserved groans from the Bright Side community.

At his best he is a solid shooter. Despite the inconsistency, he did shoot almost 38% from downtown this season and he is a career 39% shooter from deep, so I’d have to say that’s his strength. He shot 47% on corner threes, so he is very dangerous if the opposing defense lets him slide into the corner uncovered.

Weaknesses:

Just about everything else, unfortunately.

Shamet is a weak point as an individual defender, as he simply doesn’t have the physical tools or the mentality to match up well with scoring wings. Offensively, he doesn’t finish all that well around the rim and he’s not a good mid range shooter. He’s a mediocre playmaker for a bench shooting guard, (and while it’s arguably iffy to judge a guard on this metric) he was DEAD LAST on the Suns in possession-adjusted rebounding.

If Shamet wants to have a bounce back season next year, wherever that ends up being, he needs to not only remain healthier but also regain his focus and consistency on both ends of the floor. Consistency is the name of the game at this level, and shooting 9-of-12 one night and then going a combined 10-of-31 from the floor over the next five games just doesn’t get it done even if the net result of those performances doesn’t look abysmal all totaled up.

Contract Status:

Shamet is entering the second year of the four-year extension he signed in October 2021. He is now on the Washington Wizards’ books, and is owed $10.3 million this coming season.

Final Season Grade:

F.

I hate to give this grade, honestly, but Shamet just didn’t do enough to deserve much else. Could you argue he deserved a D? Sure. But the combination of not being available and not outplaying guys on minimum contracts when you are on a multi-year contract making $10 million a season is hard to forgive. Writ large he was even worse in the playoffs than he was in the regular season, and so for me that seals it.

Feel free to weigh in in the poll and comments below to be kinder to him if you wish, but I’m happy to close the book on he Landry Shamet chapter in Suns’ history.