Romeo Langford

The injury bug continued to harass Langford during his second season. After appearing in only 32 games as a rookie, Langford only saw action in 18 contests his sophomore year in Boston. He was hampered by wrist, COVID-19 and concussion issues. That said, Langford showed glimmers of excellent athletic ability during his brief appearances. Unfortunately, his shooting percentage has hovered around 35.0 percent the past two seasons. Developmental minutes will be hard to come by in 2021-22 as Langford competes with fellow wings Aaron Nesmith and Josh Richardson for reserve playing time. Eventually, Boston will need to prioritize the development of either Nesmith or Langford -- there isn't enough playing time for both of them. Considering Nesmith is the better shooter, Langford might be in a difficult situation. But the top priority for the Indiana product should be to simply stay healthy for a full season.

Langford joined the Celtics after one injury-plagued college season at Indiana and unfortunately injury issues also dampened his rookie season in Boston. The explosive first-round pick (selected just after Tyler Herro) appeared in only 32 of 72 games for the Celtics during the COVID-19 shortened-season. And as of late November 2020, he was still sporting a cast over his surgically-repaired right wrist. It's expected he will be unavailable at the start of the 2020-21 season in late December. That will open the door for new first-round pick Aaron Nesmith to see minutes as a back-up to Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown. Should Nesmith start out hot (he drained 4.3 threes per game at Vandy last season), Langford could find it difficult to earn minutes. But maybe we're being too pessimistic. Langford is entering his age-21 season and his high-pedigree still implies plenty of upside. If the high-flying wing can get healthy, he'll provide Boston with some much needed scoring punch off the bench. Don't listen to the horribly negative sports radio coming out of Boston; it's too early to give up on Langford. But, due to health concerns, his fantasy value for 2020-21 is only relevant in the deepest of leagues.

Less than 15 months ago, Langford was ranked by ESPN as the fifth-best college basketball prospect in the country. In May of 2018, he committed to his home state school of Indiana University and seemed destined for a dream one-and-done season. That didn't quite happen. Yes, Langford did earn All Big Ten Second Team honors, but the young wing also showed a few weaknesses. At times, he displayed poor body language and a propensity to force bad shots. The Hoosier also apparently played with a thumb injury for much of his lone season, which might explain the 27 percent shooting from behind the arc. That injury required surgery at the end of the season and the recovery time forced Langford to miss 2019 Summer League play. The 14th overall pick is getting a late jump on his rookie season, which might help open the door for fellow rookies Grant Williams and Carsen Edwards to see more practice time while Langford recovers. The Celtics see both Langford and Edwards as long-term, high-upside scoring threats. Squarely behind Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown on the depth chart, it's doubtful we see much of Langford's upside during the first half of this season.