Westchester Knicks select Landry Shamet & Matt Ryan in G League Draft

With roster math making headlines, New York’s G-League affiliate was used as a proxy for later moves.

A lot of maneuvering was done by the Westchester Knicks, the G-League affiliate of our ‘Bockers, to ensure they had the top two picks in this year’s G-League Draft, which was held today.

And the result couldn’t have been more obvious.

The Knicks, as everybody knew, made Matt Ryan and Landry Shamet the no. 1 and no. 2 overall picks of the 2024 NBA G League Draft.

Westchester would’ve only had the third overall pick but made a number of savvy trades to set up this spot. Last year, they traded the rights to former Knicks’ second-rounder Trevor Keels to the Iowa Wolves for their 2024 1st, which happened to be #1 overall.

Earlier this week, the Knicks made a minor swap with the Cleveland Charge to move up from third overall to second overall. That gave them 1 and 2 in this year’s draft.

As Antonio put it earlier today, Shamet and Ryan were the obvious targets for the Knicks. Picking Shamet allows the Knicks to supervise his rehab, as he recovers from the shoulder injury that cost him a roster spot.

The Matt Ryan rumors were produced earlier this week from Shams on ESPN. The Knicks are trying to eat as much clock as possible to avoid needing to accrue more salary, so this just allows them to bring Ryan in-house before he is inevitably signed to a standard or two-way contract. Ryan, a former Vanderbilt Commodore and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, has played 63 NBA games with the Celtics, Lakers, Timberwolves, and Pelicans. His calling card is elite three-point shooting, with a career 41.1 3pt% on 2.9 attempts a game. No, he is not related to that Matt Ryan.

Not everyone is eligible for the G League draft, but international prospects, UDFAs, and recently waived vets are. Both qualified.

In other news, OAKAAK Allonzo Trier was selected 53rd overall by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. I wish him well.