Re: Romeo Langford Thread
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:58 pm
sam_I_am wrote:ZeroTolerance wrote:Slartibartfast wrote:The big problem for Romeo is if his deep jumper never improves. His one significant athletic weakness is a lack of explosiveness, which makes it harder for him to beat defenders who don't have to respect his deep J and harder to work without the ball. Without it he risks becoming a Marquis Daniels/Evan Turner type.
Like most here, I've yet to see him play...but I enjoyed your prospective comparisons and opinions...
I'd take an "Evan Turner" I guess, but we can all hope for much more....It will be fun to see his talents unwrapped and see just what we got....I was impressed with summer league and if Romeo Langford turns out to be the best of this year's bunch, it's going to be fun around here.....I really get the feeling that the rookies will all get minutes. and a couple of them will become key players...but I'm more the optimist than most here....So we will see what shakes out...
If the floor for a 14th pick is Marquis Daniels or Evan Turner....then he is going to be better than the other 19 #14 picks taken this century. His versatility and defensive potential gives him a chance to be a solid contributor even if his 3 point shot never materializes and his first step remains average. I can’t wait to see him in training camp because based on the quality of our other 3 picks and the fact that they rated him highest, I am optimistic we got a very good player.
As a bonus, he has been drafted into a situation like Jermaine O’Neal in Portland where he will be forced to develop if he ever hopes to get meaningful minutes. There will be no expectations but he will face fierce competition in practice for 2-3 years.
Hasn't been a great #14 since Drexler. It's time!
FWIW, I don't think Romeo is a project like JO was - he was the #1 scoring option, a lead playmaker and the primary defender for a Big 10 team. His role wasn't all that different in prominence from Carsen Edwards or Grant Williams. His team just really sucked.
Juwan Morgan was a beast in the middle (though hopelessly undersized against real bigs), but the drop off after him was gigantic. Justin Smith has pogo sticks for legs and a good motor but couldn't shoot, finish, or pass and really struggled to defend bigger guys. Al Durham could hit a wide open 3 and that was about it - way too small and weak on D and completely overmatched in the halfcourt. Rob Phinisee tried hard as a basic drive and dish PG but was again too small to create or defend consistently against higher end BIg 10 talent. Davonte Green and DeRon Davis had some talent off the bench but they were injured a bunch and even they were half-scrub.
If they'd had a real shooter or a real big (like Purdue had with Cline and Haarms) to keep teams from overloading on their main guys or exploiting them in the paint, they would have been so much better. But it was a 2-man team.
All that to say I think Romeo could be in a good spot to play a nice role with our 2nd unit. Shooting from Carsen, set-up guard play from Marcus, a dynamite screener/high post passer/shooting release in Grant and one of the various specimens of rebounding PNR lob beef (Poirier/RWIII/Theis)... that's a group tailor-made for a scoring wing. Whenever Brad goes to 5 man bench units I think Romeo would be in a great position to feast.