How Bad Are the Nesmith and Langford Picks?

[Sophomore]

Just as a reminder, in addition to Langford and Nesmith, our picks in the second half of the first round the past four years have been:

27th pick: Rob Williams
22nd: Grant Williams
26th: Payton Pritchard

That’s solid value in the 20s.

I would add that we got Semi at 37th. He’ll never be a star, but he may be rounding into form as a useful NBA player. 

I hear so much trashing of the Cs drafts and player development. I’m disappointed by Nesmith and Langford’s start. But with Romeo it’s entirely about health - the kid can play, if he can stay on the court. With Nesmith let’s see. Given the way Rozier and Rob developed, and now maybe Semi, I am not close to counting him out.

[liam]

Lol

[NKY fan]

I think the best way to look at this is to say that normally, you should expect a #14 to earn some minutes as a rookie and evolve from there. There should be some value to the organization nearly right away, then they should evolve into whatever they become. Something roughly along the lines of what Pritchard has done. So, in the immediate sense, they are a trainwreck.

Longer term, which matters more, almost nothing has happened, except Langford has shown in limited minutes that he probably has the basic tools to become a quality NBA player.

I’m not sure I’m looking at it the bast way but during different periods those both draft picks - kings’ and grizzlies’ were considered almost prime trade assets. To come away from those 2 assets with two long term (developmental) projects on a competing team is what makes people disappointed.. ideally could have been dealt for a very useful young player like Aron Gordon or someone like that if not as part of a package for a star... or even roll forward for future assets given how crowded our roster was...
As I said may not be the best way to view this...

[Jiri Welsch]

Just as a reminder, in addition to Langford and Nesmith, our picks in the second half of the first round the past four years have been:

27th pick: Rob Williams
22nd: Grant Williams
26th: Payton Pritchard

That’s solid value in the 20s.

I would add that we got Semi at 37th. He’ll never be a star, but he may be rounding into form as a useful NBA player. 

I hear so much trashing of the Cs drafts and player development. I’m disappointed by Nesmith and Langford’s start. But with Romeo it’s entirely about health - the kid can play, if he can stay on the court. With Nesmith let’s see. Given the way Rozier and Rob developed, and now maybe Semi, I am not close to counting him out.

When making this thread I wasn't trying to bash Ainge's drafting at all. I've followed enough drafts (used to be obsessed with NBADraft.net since the days of "Gerald Green or Martell Webster?!") to know you swing and miss sometimes and it's fine.

I was mostly curious about what type of player we think either of them could become based on what they've shown thus far.

[Phantom255x]

If we're already calling Nesmith a bad pick, then boy I'd love to go back and see the reactions after Jaylen's first year (after being picked #3).

[Sophomore]

Just as a reminder, in addition to Langford and Nesmith, our picks in the second half of the first round the past four years have been:

27th pick: Rob Williams
22nd: Grant Williams
26th: Payton Pritchard

That’s solid value in the 20s.

I would add that we got Semi at 37th. He’ll never be a star, but he may be rounding into form as a useful NBA player. 

I hear so much trashing of the Cs drafts and player development. I’m disappointed by Nesmith and Langford’s start. But with Romeo it’s entirely about health - the kid can play, if he can stay on the court. With Nesmith let’s see. Given the way Rozier and Rob developed, and now maybe Semi, I am not close to counting him out.

When making this thread I wasn't trying to bash Ainge's drafting at all. I've followed enough drafts (used to be obsessed with NBADraft.net since the days of "Gerald Green or Martell Webster?!") to know you swing and miss sometimes and it's fine.

I was mostly curious about what type of player we think either of them could become based on what they've shown thus far.

My comment wasn’t for you in particular. It’s about a common theme in a lot of comments I’ve seen.

[cltc5]

Isn’t Langford hurt

[aingeforthree]

TBD. Both were solid. Really looking forward to the development of Romeo. He’s got the body & all the tools to be great.

[libermaniac]

If a rookie is going to be good he generally shows it right away. If we have to make excuses and preach patience the ship has already sailed. Thankfully Pritchard is solid. He’s certainly worthy of the 14th pick.

[Linwood]

If a rookie is going to be good he generally shows it right away. If we have to make excuses and preach patience the ship has already sailed. Thankfully Pritchard is solid. He’s certainly worthy of the 14th pick.

Jalen Brown looked even worse than Langford his rookie year.

[JBJT619]

If a rookie is going to be good he generally shows it right away. If we have to make excuses and preach patience the ship has already sailed. Thankfully Pritchard is solid. He’s certainly worthy of the 14th pick.

Jalen Brown looked even worse than Langford his rookie year.

I think there's serious revisionist history going on. Jaylen Brown and Langford both flashed defensive potential, athleticism, and finishing ability in their rookie years.

As for Neismith, I'd say cut your loses and fire your scouting department. Horrible. To look that bad against a terrible Knicks team in garbage time. No it's not going to happen. No.

Not sure what Danny saw outside of a 50% 3 point percentage in a shortened season with injury. Terrible.

[PhoSita]

Nesmith played a handful of games his last season in college and came into the NBA in probably the worst year for rookies maybe EVER.  No summer league, limited training camp, limited practices, social distancing due to COVID, distractions galore.

It's not just too early to tell, there's so many confounding factors for a guy who was drafted as a raw prospect that there's just no useful information to rely upon when trying to draw any conclusions.

[libermaniac]

Nesmith played a handful of games his last season in college and came into the NBA in probably the worst year for rookies maybe EVER.  No summer league, limited training camp, limited practices, social distancing due to COVID, distractions galore.

It's not just too early to tell, there's so many confounding factors for a guy who was drafted as a raw prospect that there's just no useful information to rely upon when trying to draw any conclusions.

Quickly looked pretty [dang] good. There’s plenty of other rookies looking very good out there. If we have to start making excuses ...

[JBJT619]

Nesmith played a handful of games his last season in college and came into the NBA in probably the worst year for rookies maybe EVER.  No summer league, limited training camp, limited practices, social distancing due to COVID, distractions galore.

It's not just too early to tell, there's so many confounding factors for a guy who was drafted as a raw prospect that there's just no useful information to rely upon when trying to draw any conclusions.

He may be raw defensively, he was supposed to at a minimum bring a shot and he's shooting a horrific 21% from 3. He's not even shooting above 30% from 3 which is even bad for a shooter.

Make all the excuses you want, but if you can't come in and bring the minimum, which is your shooting skill, at even a below league average level you are seriously underperforming.

Defensively, he was bad in college and is even worse now. He can't handle the ball and doesn't have the foot speed or athleticism to get to the rim.

What the hell does he provide? Seriously?! I didn't like the pick during the draft and I don't like it now. We would have been better off drafting a big or even more guard help considering we know Kemba has a degenerative knee condition and we don't have enough playmakers with the ball.

He's a rookie so yeah he gets a pass, but there are still minimums you should hit even as a rookie. To so horrifically underperform usually is a good indicator he may never be better than a bench/rotation player honestly. There were plenty of players still available at 14 that we could have invested that pick on that would have already had a better return (Precious Achuiwa!!!!!!!!!!!).

[Rondo9]

Wouldn't be Celticsblog without the hottakes.