Iman Shumpert

[...] Shumpert, the filler contract received back in the Hill deal, has yet to play for the Kings after a season riddled with injury. Even when healthy, he looked to have lost a lot from his peak, and only his contract binds him to the team still. If Shumpert and his agent can find another suitor, that can soon be fixed. Conversely, Koufos has been with the team for three years, is their second-longest tenured player (a mere two weeks behind Willie Cauley-Stein), is their second-best player if measured by PER (a mere 0.1 points behind Willie Cauley-Stein), and is their second-best player if measured by VORP (a mere 0.3 points behind Willie Cauley-Stein). These are all reasons why Koufos, a good and useful player, should be traded if possible. But if not, the buyout may happen.

Iman Shumpert
SG, 6’5, 220lbs, 27 years old, 6 years of experience

Had a career high true shooting percentage in the regular season, on an admittedly average .536%, and shot a career-high 36% from three point range on his highest ever proportion of three-point shots. In the finals, however, he was entirely stifled offensively, and his limitations were exposed.

Player Plan: Two years and circa $21.35 million remaining, including a player option for 2018/19. In light of his offensive unreliability, the need to upgrade the two-guard spot and the large cost of the roster as a whole, Shumpert should be considered available in trade.

[...] However, coinciding with the winning streak is the greatly improved play of Iman Shumpert. A starter all season long, Shumpert has struggled significantly until recently, when he caught fire from three point range. A poor shooter for his career, Shumpert shot 40% on three pointers last season that hinted at progress, yet it was on sufficiently few attempts to have potentially been an outlier. Yet the 39% he is shooting from there this season, including 17-28 just this week, suggests it is not. Started for his defense, Shumpert's lack of consistent or efficient off-the-dribble game is less relevant if the three point shooting sustains - it, combined with his defense on both guard positions, transition play, athleticism and ability to play some point guard in a pinch make for a good role player down the road.

The Knicks pick next, and the atmosphere inevitably swells. We may be in New Jersey, but New York fans still run the draft. The camera pans to a shout of some prepubescent Knicks fans holding up a signs which says "WE MAY OVERPAY PLAYERS, BUT NO OVERSEAS PLAYERS! GO NYK!" Xenophobia, jingoism and borderline racism were the foundations upon which the draft were built.


Pick 17: Donnie Walsh's final act as capo de regime sees him oblige the juvenile bigots by drafting an American player. But it wasn't the American player the crowd wanted. Predictably, the selection of Iman Shumpert is treated to a chorus of boos, for every Knicks draft pick since Maciej Lampe has been vociferously booed. It's the rule. They want whatever they can't have. Just as long as it's pure blooded American.

The Knicks are the first team to pick from outside of the green room (which is neither green nor a room. Annoys me every year.) Indeed, there's only one player still left in the green room - Chris Singleton of Florida State, whom it appears the Knick fans would have preferred. (They certainly would have preferred him over Donatas Motiejunas, who is just too damn foreign.) Shumpert is not in the building this evening. Perhaps he didn't know he was going to be drafted, or perhaps he didn't want the best moment of his life to date to be ruined by having to field a chorus of boos from a roomful of strangers. Whichever it is, the Knicks did something unpopular again.

It is perhaps not that bad, though. The Knicks need to improve their defense; that much is self-evident. Yet you can only improve your defense if you have players committed to playing defense, with the physical tools to be able to do it well. Shumpert is one such player, and just by being there, he is going to be a help to the Knicks defense.

Of course, so would Singleton.

Jay Bilas cites that Shumpert has improved at "coming to work like a man every day." He previously came to work a woman every second Monday.

Iman Shumpert - Shumpert is one of the best guard defenders in this list, and he has the physical profile to bring this to the pro game. He has all the physical tools to do, and, it appears, more than enough interesting in being so.

After two and a half up and down years, Shumpert broke out once conference play started last season, highlighted by a near-quadruple double (22 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 7 steals) in a win over Virginia Tech. Shumpert is one of the most athletic and strong players in the draft, at any position, and while he is a little short for the shooting guard position that he may end up destined for, his 6'4-6'5 frame is great for a point guard.

Offensively, Shumpert has always been thoroughly awkward - ball dominant and turnover prone, continuing to cast up jumpers despite being a bad shooter, having no strong feel for the game, taking bad shots and throwing the ball away. Nevertheless, this too showed good improvement last season, as Shumpert returned 17.3 points and 3.5 assists per game, cutting his TO's to only 2.3 per game. He also finally cracked the 40% shooting mark, albeit at only 40.6%. What Shumpert's offensive role will be at the next level - given that he hasn't shown he can be a full time ball handler, nor a good enough shooter to play much off the ball - is unclear. But what is clear is that Shumpert's defense will (or should) get him in. It's not as if Mario West has needed an offensive role to make it, and West is grossly inferior to Shumpert.

Iman Shumpert fact: Iman Shumpert is not related to Preston Shumpert. Indeed, there are lots of people he is not related to.