2019 NBA Mock Draft: The dust clears from the NBA trade deadline
player. 24. . G. Indiana. Romeo Langford. 4
Your guess about Indiana’s tumultuous season is as good as mine. Led by Archie Miller, who took Dayton to a Sweet Sixteen before getting the job in Bloomington, the Hoosiers were supposed to pair senior Juwan Morgan with Indiana’s chosen son, Langford, to wreak havoc in the Big Ten. It hasn’t gone that way and Langford’s stock has suffered as a result.
The Hoosiers just don’t have good guard play. They turn the ball over too often, devolve into isolations too frequently in halfcourt situations and rely on Langford and Morgan to make plays out of thin air. That plan works sometimes, as Langford is in the 86th percentile as a halfcourt creator according to Synergy, but has put the Hoosiers’ offensive efficiency in the bottom half of Division I schools in the country.
As a pick-and-roll ball-handler, Langford can make music. He is scoring nearly a point per possession in those situations, better than most guards could dream of and rarely turns the ball over. Early in conference play, Indiana took the ball out of Langford’s hands and found success but despite the freshman’s proclivity to cough the ball up, his scoring needs to be a greater focus.
Langford would provide Chicago at least one more season to diagnose Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn long-term. His ability to shoot and attack the basket make it easier for him to fit with another guard even if it’s not ideal. More than someone like Ja Morant or Darius Garland, drafting Langford would allow Chicago to continue with this core more smoothly.