2019 NBA Mock Draft: The lottery order is officially official
10. player. 86. . G. Indiana. Romeo Langford
While Langford’s scoring became more inconsistent as teams saw him a second time in conference play, he figured a few things out. His defense and playmaking started to hold more value for the Hoosiers, to the point Indiana was winning games even when Langford couldn’t score. That would have been unheard of early in the year.
There’s evidence in the numbers that Langford improved on the margins. This season, Langford turned the ball over once every 16 minutes on average. Yet in March, the freshman turned the ball over just six times in 142 minutes, or once every 24 minutes. Better yet, during conference play, Langford shot 31.4 percent from distance compared with just 13.3 percent against all other teams.
He would add another element in Minnesota. The team was written off after trading Jimmy Butler because it was believed they did not get enough back for the beleaguered swingman, but that’s not true. Most of that reputation likely emanates from Andrew Wiggins’ albatross deal, but guys like Josh Okogie and Tyus Jones in addition to the Wolves’ return from the Butler deal will surround Karl-Anthony Towns for a long time in the playoffs.
They just need to improve on defense. Despite Towns’ reputation, Minnesota’s defense has been better defensively with its star big man on the court the past two years, according to Cleaning the Glass. That speaks quite a bit to Minnesota’s lack of depth behind Towns as much as the support of Taj Gibson and Jeff Teague in the starting lineup, but their youngsters have considerable defensive upside as well.
Adding Langford to Okogie, Jones, Wiggins, Towns, Robert Covington and Dario Saric makes for an exciting group.