Overreacting and Overstating: Romeo Langford
You guys know the drill at this point. Time to compare Romeo to some of the league’s premiere wings. Let’s see where the numbers stack up.
Starting with the obvious stat (PPG), always using per 36 here, Romeo is tied for last place. (You’ll see that this tends to be a trend going forward.) He and Andre Iguodala each have 9.9 points per game. In assists he’s the worst by far. Paul George and Danny Granger are the next closest to least, but even they had a whole 1.3 more than Romeo per game. In fairness, Romeo doesn’t really get the opportunity to playmake on this Boston team, so we don’t know how good he is in that regard. He’s also the worst at rebounding, but not by as big of a margin. He and Ellis are at the bottom of the list for this category.
His defensive stats aren’t as bad as his offensive ones may seem. His steals per game is the lowest with Granger and Richard Jefferson 0.3 above him, but his blocks per game is the second best out of the group. The only guy above him in this category is Granger. He’s a very versatile defender I think, and I think this could be a real strength of his moving forward. (PS: No I will not acknowledge that his 3 block performance against the Hawks could be inflating his stats here. No you shut up.)
The percentages here bode well for Romeo, too. In the category of overall field goal percentage, Romeo is right near the middle with a very respectable 45.2% from the field. As for three-point shooting, he’s unfortunately second worst in this ranking. The only person lower than him is Richard Jefferson. However, possibly the most interesting stat of all the percentages comes when you factor out three-point shooting. Here, Romeo is the most efficient shooter of the bunch. He shoots by far the best on two-point shots with a percentage of 57.7%. Now, from watching him play I don’t see him take too many mid-range shots, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say most of these shots are from him driving to the paint. So in typical overreacting fashion, I’m going to say Romeo could be one of the best slashers in the league at some point… Yeah, I said it.
That is, as long as he starts in the NBA...not the G-League. (C’mon now Mrs. Langford, have some faith.)
Moving onto the per 100 stats, I always like to take a look at the offensive and defensive ratings. Starting on offense, Romeo is on top. His offensive rating is the best of everyone. The next highest after him are Iguodala and Granger, and they’re just one point below Romeo. Defense is where things get worse though, as the opposite is true here. Romeo ranks the worst in defense, but Monta is a close second worse in this case.
Lastly, when we take a look at the advanced stats it becomes clear that Romeo just isn’t getting the same opportunities in his rookie season that most of these guys did. His usage rate is the lowest, showing that he just doesn’t play enough to have the same stats as most of these dudes. In win share he’s last, but only 0.1 behind Monta Ellis. Breaking that down a little more, his offensive win share is 0.1, which is middle of the pack, and his defensive win share is the worst of everyone at a disappointing 0.2.
I was stuck between two guys when looking at who to make the final comparison to - Andre Iguodala and Danny Granger. Monta Ellis was a close third, but I just think Romeo plays more like a wing than a guard. On the one hand, I think Romeo has the scoring potential leading me towards choosing Granger, but the versatility which makes me lean more towards Iggy. In the end, I’m going to go with Granger. What sold me was the similar ratio of blocks and steals, as well as the ratio of assists to rebounds. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Romeo drop 25 a game like Granger did in his heyday, but as the Great Kevin Garnett (congratulations, by the way) once said, anything is possible.
Romeo Langford = Danny Granger
