Now that the 2020-21 Boston Celtics season is firmly in the rear-view mirror, it’s possible to spend some time taking stock of how each player did with the opportunity he had.
To that end, we are grading every player who put in time on the basketball court for the Celtics this season, including all 15 members of the regular roster, both two-way players and the players the team cut or traded away. That’s 21 players altogether, and today’s focus is second-year shooting guard Romeo Langford. Impacted perhaps more than any player on Boston’s roster by injury and COVID combined, his season did not start until April of 2021.
With that in mind, we’ll assess the New Albany native’s progress in his second season in the league.
Offense
Langford’s offense is still very much a work in progress, and while he’s become a slightly more efficient player overall, still has a ways to go before he’s a threat on this end of the floor with a field goal percentage of just 35.6%. He’s also made minor improvements at the free-throw line and moving the ball, but this part of his game is still in its infancy, through no fault of his own. Still, he started to hit from deep in the postseason that gives a glimpse at the player he could become, knocking down 35.3% from 3-point range against the Brooklyn Nets and 40% from the field overall. Grade: D+ https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1403668431174615041?s=20
Defense
Defense is where Langford justified being on the floor. He made mistakes, but few egregious ones, and often managed to hang with some of the league’s most difficult covers in the latter fifth of the season and the playoffs. He still has a ways to go before he gives any of those offensive juggernauts pause when they see him closing out, but Langford brought real value on this end of the court despite little time to learn the defensive schema in practice. Grade: C+ https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1403577872036601858?s=20
Intangibles
Given how much time he’s missed since even before being drafted as a player, it’s easy to imagine checking out in response, but Langford has always been pleasant with the media and present on the court. He’s also shown some willingness to get after 50-50 balls on the court despite the punishment his body has put up with over the course of his still-young pro career, which says a lot about his character. Grade: B- https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1403759051750715393?s=20
Overall
Most of the deeper rotation on Boston’s roster saw little time to formulate enough material to properly assess their growth as young players, and Langford, unfortunately, fits that mold. But once he got his sea legs late in 2020-21, he showed some new wrinkles on top of his established defensive chops, leaving us excited to see what he can do when healthy and getting some run. Grade: C+ This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook! [lawrence-related id=51907,51891,51894,51888] [listicle id=51877]
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