Landry Shamet’s post-March shooting drop has followed the Knicks into their Hawks series, raising questions about bench depth and backup playmaking.
The Knicks’ first-round series with the Hawks is tied 1-1, but one storyline has started to feel louder with every possession: Landry Shamet can’t find his stroke.
Through the first two games. the veteran guard’s shot profile has been brutally out of sync with what New York needed from him.. He’s gone 1-for-6 from three and 1-for-7 overall.. In the Knicks’ 107-106 Game 2 loss at Madison Square Garden. Shamet didn’t score. and New York was outscored by six points in the 10 minutes he played.
The timing matters.. Shamet’s slump didn’t begin in the playoffs—it simply carried over.. Over the end-of-season stretch, he looked like a player whose role had tightened faster than his rhythm could recover.. From the start of March through the end of the regular season, he shot 30.4% from deep.. He also missed five games with a knee injury, cutting into both continuity and confidence.. The contrast is stark: in the 35 games before March, he shot 42.9% from three.
That’s where the playoff discomfort shows up most clearly—because the Knicks didn’t just lose shooting; they lost reliable minutes and spacing at the exact moment when defenses can adjust faster and punish hesitation.. When a wing or guard is meant to punish closeouts with threes, a cold stretch doesn’t just lower efficiency.. It changes how the entire offense breathes.
In Game 2, coach Mike Brown acknowledged that reality by shortening the leash.. Jose Alvarado—acquired ahead of the trade deadline and not originally expected to be a central playoff answer—received playing time over Shamet in the second and fourth quarters.. It wasn’t only about who deserved minutes on paper; it was about who could best help New York survive the moment-to-moment rotations.
One of the deeper issues sits underneath the shooting numbers: the Knicks’ backup point guard question.. With Jalen Brunson anchoring the offense, New York has relied on Shamet and Miles McBride to handle some ball-handling responsibilities.. But neither is a natural point guard. and both have struggled in ways that show up when the playoffs speed up the decision-making.. The result is more than an uncomfortable mismatch—it can become a chain reaction where teammates play less freely. possessions drag. and late-clock shots become more common.
The Knicks did bring in Alvarado with the idea that the bench could become more functional. especially in transition and in situations where Brunson needs rest.. He started hot, but that early spark hasn’t translated into consistent control of the role.. At the same time. Tyler Kolek briefly looked like he might cement a pathway into the rotation. only to fall out of it again.. Across the first two games. McBride and Shamet have shared the floor for just 23 minutes total. and the Knicks are operating with a minus-1.9 net rating in that shared sample—small data. but the kind that makes coaches and front offices pay attention.
That’s the human side of it: when your perimeter guard’s shot isn’t landing. the pressure doesn’t stay on the shooter.. It transfers—to the drivers who can’t rely on kick-out threats. to the bigs who face tighter help. and to the guards trying to survive without a true secondary playmaker.. In a playoff series. those ripple effects often turn into defensive schemes that feel effortless for the opponent and exhausting for the home team.
There’s also a bench-depth angle that can’t be ignored.. If Shamet’s struggles worsen—or if Brown keeps feeling forced to play musical chairs with his backcourt—New York’s bench suddenly looks thin in a way it may not be able to disguise.. With opponent scouting getting sharper by the game, every rotation decision becomes more expensive.
And in the background of all that tactical friction, the Knicks are still dealing with emotional momentum swings.. CJ McCollum insisted he doesn’t see himself as a villain. even as parts of the Madison Square Garden crowd treated him that way with boos and obscenities.. Jonathan Kuminga believes McCollum took that energy in the way a competitor does—absorbing the noise and channeling it into effort that pulls teammates along.
For the Knicks. the key question going forward is simpler than the roster math: can they stabilize the role Shamet is supposed to play before the series tilts permanently?. Right now, the slumping shooter isn’t just missing shots.. He’s forcing New York to rethink how it functions when Brunson rests—and in the playoffs. that kind of uncertainty is hard to hide for long.