Landry Shamet's '24-'25 salary ($11M) becomes fully guaranteed if they don't waive him by June 29, 2024 (https://hoopshype.com/player/landry-shamet/salary/). So I guess they have three options?
- Waive him — save some salary cap room and free up playing time for other players. Kind of makes his time here a waste though.
- Not waive him — hope that he can be traded at the deadline. That plan didn't work last year.
- Trade him to another team that could then waive him — take on some salary that another team doesn't want along with some draft compensation. Seems like the best option, there must be some team that would give up some draft capital to cleanly cut about $11M.
Edit: Option #4. Trade him to a team that doesn't want to waive him. I didn't think this was a possibility given the lack of interest in him during the trade deadline last year, but based on the comments, it seems like I should have included this.
by OldSchoolB2
7 Comments
If we want Mitchell Robinson it seems like a given that we’d try to ship Shamet in that deal before the 29th. Knicks get off Robinson and can cut Shamet and pay him nothing. We get a decent big who can rebound. Seems like a win for everyone involved, I don’t think any picks would be needed from either team.
Robinson, if healthy, could easily get us a solid return in a year and a half. If not, we spent nothing to get him. Shamet wasn’t gonna be in the rotation anyway.
Trading Shamet for Robinson would already mean getting something for nothing. I’d be amazed if we somehow squeezed a draft pick out of the Knicks on top of that.
either waive him or trade him.
Robinson is a good player on a relatively low salary, but with injury history. A pure salary dump would be a coup for the Wiz. I suspect, however, that the bidding might require the wiz to give up something. I’d still do it even if there was a cost. Robinson is good, even if he only plays part of the season. The ideal scenario is that Robinson and Bagley time their annual injuries so it’s not at the same time.
HoopsHype [reported](https://hoopshype.com/lists/aggregate-2024-nba-mock-draft-paul-george-tyrese-maxey-free-agency-zach-lavine-trade-talks/) there’s some interest from the Mavs, Raptors, Lakers, Clippers, Jazz and Magic.
That article also reported that Dawkins is leaning toward guaranteeing Shamet’s $11M if he’s here past the draft, so that’s something to monitor, too.
Another interesting tidbit from the same piece is the intel that Tyus Jones could be a sign-and-trade candidate. I’m not sure I buy that considering we own his Bird rights and overpriced him at the deadline. Tyus staying is likely part of the short-to-medium-term plan.
But I guess that makes me wonder what the plan for our backcourt is if we’re guaranteeing Shamet this year, bringing back Tyus AND potentially drafting a guard at 26.
Mitchell Robinson salary, FYI:
2024/25 $14,318,182
2025/26 $12,954,546
All guaranteed. He’s on the declining contract plan as well (this is last two years of a 4-year contract).
Hopefully they trade him to a team that’s hard up for immediate cap relief for an asset