Clippers Pick Up Third Year Options on Landry Shamet and Jerome Robinson

The Clippers announced today that they are picking up the third year team options on the rookie contracts of Landry Shamet ($2,090,040) and Jerome Robinson ($3,737,520) for the 2020-2021 seasons. Both guards were 1st round picks in the stacked 2018 draft, with the Clippers selecting Robinson at 14th and the Sixers picking Shamet at 26th. Shamet, of course, came over from the Sixers as the centerpiece of the Tobias Harris deal, giving the Clippers cheap cost control over a highly valuable young player.

Teams almost never decline third year options on rookies — even if they don’t look good, it’s still very early in their careers, and all but the very highest picks have fairly cheap contracts which are easily movable. As Shamet is a starter on the Clippers, they were certainly never going to decline his deal - he’s a key piece of the team moving forward. While Jerome is a deep bench piece for the Clippers right now, he’s shown enough to warrant another year, and is at the very least a nice trade chip if the Clippers want to add to their roster at the trade deadline.

After a summer where the Clippers had a lot of moving pieces and free agents, they’ve made efforts to secure the vast majority of their roster for next season, and this is just the latest fit to the puzzle piece. With Shamet and Robinson secured, the only two major players from the current Clippers roster without contracts for next season are Montrezl Harrell and Moe Harkless. Everyone else, barring trade, should be back for the 2020-2021 campaign as well.

Congratulations to Landry and Jerome on their future salaries being guaranteed. Hopefully they continue to show that the Clippers’ faith in them is deserving.