Cs fans who wish Langford is actually good are just as lost as Romeo. Stop pretending.
Pretending he’s a good defender? He is. That is not up for debate.
Question is whether his offense develops.
Keep in mind this player is 22 years old.
Guy is knocking down some threes. Keep it up
He’s averaging .7 threes per game on 35% shooting. He has 11 steals (total) on the season. He averages less than 5 points per game while he drifts around. His PER is below 9.
He has virtually no impact on the game. If we had a real bench, he wouldn’t play.
By comparison, Max Strus — who we had in as a rookie at the same time — is a legit NBA bench player. But because we had so many (bad) rookie contracts, he cut him lose so we could keep the likes of Langford and Edwards. It’s infuriating.
Langford’s best defensive skill is on-ball defense, so while he gets about a steal/36 minutes that isn’t where he shines. How well do players shoot when he defends them? I don’t know how to find the stat, but the eye test tells me does excellent work. Did you notice that when we played Cleveland Ime put Romeo on Garland and had Smart playing Rubio?
Also, he’s clearly a very good rebounder for a guard. His per-36 is 6.3 rebounds a game.
I think what we saw against Cleveland is what we might expect if he got more run with the starters. He fills the corners and he’s either ready for a pass, attacks a closeout, or is ready to cut to the hoop for a pass or a rebound. That was a nice game - 11 points, 9 boards, 2 steals, solid defense. We could do worse from the fifth starter.
He’s (obviously) a limited offensive player right now, and that puts a ceiling on him. But given how well he starts his moves I’m not convinced he can’t learn to finish better. I say it’s too soon.