Nets Shopped Shamet Before Harden Swap

The Nets shopped guard Landry Shamet for a first-round pick prior to the James Harden blockbuster deal, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his podcast (hat tip to RealGM).

The motivation for Brooklyn was to forward another first-rounder to the Rockets and hold onto young center Jarrett Allen. Brooklyn gave up three first-rounders to Houston in the deal and a fourth one might have allowed them to retain Allen.

The Cavaliers were motivated to acquire Allen, a restricted free agent after the season, and gave up an unprotected 2022 first-round pick that Milwaukee owed them as part of the complex four-team swap. Cleveland also took on Taurean Prince‘s multiyear salary.

“I talked to two different teams that the Nets offered Landry Shamet to in the last week, attempting to get a first-round pick,” Windhorst said. “They were trying to keep Jarrett Allen, as you can imagine. To get the fourth first-round pick, they were trying to find a team that would give them anything. And so they shopped Landry Shamet pretty hard from what I understand.”

Without Allen, the Nets are left with DeAndre Jordan as the only true center on the roster and it will be difficult for them to trade for another of consequence.

“I just don’t see a lot of assets on the roster. And of course they have no first-round picks they can trade,” Windhorst said.

Shamet was acquired from the Clippers in a three-team trade during the offseason. Brooklyn exercised its $3.77MM 2021/22 option on Shamet prior to this season. He’s making roughly $2.1MM this season.

Shamet will have difficulty getting minutes behind Harden and Kyrie Irving, who is expected to return as early as Wednesday from his personal absence. He played 11 minutes off the bench in the Nets’ two-point win over Milwaukee on Monday. Shamet is shooting just 34.3% from the field in a reserve role this season.

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