Landry Shamet Studying Klay Thompson, Steph Curry During Quarantine
There's only so much that NBA players have been allowed to do since the season was suspended on March 11, but it sounds like LA Clippers guard Landry Shamet has taken complete advantage of his resources.
On a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning, Shamet said he's been studying plenty of film during the quarantine and has kept a close eye on Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.
"I've been watching a lot of like Klay and Steph and those guys a few years ago when they were really like — really rolling, figuring out what they would do against the types of defenses that I'm starting to see in order how to be effective, how to get involved, not only to score but how to trigger actions for other guys," Shamet said. "So I've been really diving into that, really thinking a lot, watching myself, watching other people, just trying to figure out what I can do to kind of take my game to the next level with this little break we've been on."
Shamet is already a terrific shooter at the NBA level. The 23-year-old has a career rate of 41.0% from beyond the three-point line (better than Thompson at the same stage of his career), and he connected on 45.0% of his three-point attempts last season after he was traded to the Clippers.
However, during LA's playoff series against the Golden State Warriors last year, Shamet made just 32.3% of his attempts from deep. In addition to getting doubled on offense, Kevin Durant took to guarding him on a lot of possessions. Figuring out how to get himself out of those types of coverages will be important for him to be a factor in this year's playoffs.
Ultimately, studying Thompson and Curry — two of the greatest shooters the game has ever seen — should only help Shamet and the Clippers in the long run.
