New York Knicks: Waiting On Iman Shumpert Extension A Wise Move For Now

If the New York Knicks plan to make guard Iman Shumpert part of their long-term future, they’re certainly not in a hurry to do so.

At the moment, that type of patience is a wise approach given what Shumpert has shown the Knicks thus far and how that may or may not fit in with New York’s plans beyond the upcoming NBA season.

Entering the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, the former first-round draft pick is eligible to sign a rookie scale extension, provided such a deal would be consummated before the end of next month.

However, the Knicks have reportedly not reached out to Shumpert on that front, and apparently have no immediate urgency to pursue the matter.

Rather, New York appears content to let things play out, knowing that Shumpert could be lost to another team as a restricted free agent next summer.

To keep him at that point, the Knicks would have to submit a one-year, $3.7 million qualifying offer by June 30 and then have a chance to match any offer Shumpert might receive from another club.

For now, that’s the most prudent thing New York could do with Shumpert, and it represents a departure from the way the previous, more impulsive Knick regimes might have done things.

But today’s Phil Jackson-led Knicks more shrewdly look at the larger picture of not only where the franchise is positioned for the short term, but where it’s headed down the road.

Although Shumpert had a solid rookie season that indicated a lot of promise, there has been a clear delineation in the decline of his production ever since a debilitating knee injury during the 2012 playoffs in Miami prematurely ended his year.

Since then, Shumpert hasn’t been the same offensively, as the 9.5 points per game he averaged in his first season, fell to a consistently low 6.8 the next year, followed by 6.7 last season.

Due in part to a lack of trust and, in some cases, misuse of former Knicks head coach Mike Woodson, Shumpert far too frequently became a passive, uninvolved afterthought, who outside of providing good defense on most nights, contributed very little to New York’s offense.

Two years ago, Shumpert scored in double figures in each of his final three regular season games while attempting double-figure shot attempts in three of his last four contests. But prior to that, he reached that level in field goal tries just four times and only scored in double figures six times over his 41 previous games that season.

In 74 games (which included 58 starts) last year, Shumpert attempted double figures in shots just six times and scored five points or less in more than half (38) of the games in which he appeared.

That’s not exactly what a team is looking for from a starting shooting guard.

While Shumpert improved his three-point shooting accuracy significantly from his rookie campaign (30.6 percent) to his sophomore year (40.2 percent), he dipped back to 33.3 percent from behind the arc last year.

If Shumpert isn’t willing to be more aggressive in the paint, being a more consistent three-point shooter is a must. Yet that’s something which Shumpert has shown an ability to do only in brief flashes.

Where Shumpert has been consistent is in his overall shooting percentage, but even that doesn’t paint a good picture for a player seeking an early contract extension. Shumpert shot 40.1 percent overall as a rookie, followed by 39.6 percent, and dropped to an unreliable 37.8 percent last season.

There’s a decent chance that the Knicks getting away from Woodson’s stagnant, isolation-heavy offense and moving toward Jackson’s patented triangle offense through new head coach Derek Fisher will bring out a type of efficiency and production which Shumpert has yet to demonstrate.

But even if it does, playing a waiting game with Shumpert’s contract status makes a lot of sense.

If Shumpert never pans out quite the way New York had hoped, the Knicks will be happy to let him walk as free agent next summer while enjoying the bit of extra cap space Shumpert’s departure would afford them as New York continues to try to build around star forward Carmelo Anthony. That potential cap relief would complement the much larger chunks of cap space in the form of expiring contracts for forwards Amar’e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani, when those deals come off the books next summer.

However, if Shumpert’s game improves through the triangle, he could become even better trade bait during the 2014-15 season, especially when the Knicks were already shopping the guard this offseason.

And if Shumpert raises his play so much that New York would absolutely want to keep him, then at that point, the Knicks would be glad to match an offer from another team and have Shumpert remain as a young cornerstone alongside Anthony in a continued rebuilding process.

So no matter what the outcome, the Knicks have all of the leverage right now, and there’s no need for them to act too soon on deciding what to do with Shumpert. Unlike similar situations in the past, the newly-run Knicks, for the time being, are playing it just right.