New Delhi, June 7 -- There is a version of the 2026 NBA Finals in which Josh Hart's shooting drought is a crisis. There is another version in which Jalen Brunson's 34-percent field-goal rate through two games becomes the story that consumes everything. Landry Shamet has made sure neither version exists.

and what their absence would mean for the architecture of Tom Thibodeau's roster - is the more revealing story.

Fourteen months ago, Shamet was cut by the Washington Wizards and signed with the Knicks' G League affiliate in Westchester. He had been a footnote in the Phoenix Suns' ill-fated Bradley Beal trade, bundled alongside Chris Paul and four first-round pick swaps as salary-dump packaging. His career arc, once promising after being ...