Like many first-round draft picks, Spurs guard Romeo Langford hit the NBA in the summer of 2019 ready to set the league on fire.
He had been one of the nation’s top recruits coming out of New Albany (Ind.) High a year earlier, a McDonald’s All-American who had been named Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana and was coveted by every blue-blooded college basketball program in the country.
Langford had no doubt what skill put him on every coach’s must-recruit list.
“I was a scorer first,” Langford said.
After one college season at Indiana, Langford was drafted 14th overall by Boston. He arrived with visions of 30-point games to come dancing in his head.
It was a relatively unknown Celtics assistant named Joe Mazzulla who first hit Langford with the unfortunate news.
If Langford was seeking playing time, in Boston or elsewhere, he was looking at the wrong end of the court.
“He told me, and I’ve kind of seen it since,” Langford said, “the way I’m going to get to play in the beginning is playing defense.”
The Celtics visited the AT&T Center on Saturday for the first time since the trade last February that delivered Langford — along with veteran guard Josh Richardson and a 2022 first-round pick — to San Antonio in exchange for Derrick White.
Langford is filling in as the Spurs’ starting shooting guard, with Devin Vassell scheduled for a knee procedure next week.
Mazzulla is Boston’s head coach, handed the reins to one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams in September after the team suspended the scandal-ridden Ime Udoka for the season.
Count Langford as one of those unsurprised the Celtics, an NBA Finals participant last season, have kept rolling despite the coaching change.
Under the 34-year-old Mazzulla, Boston came to San Antonio with a 27-12 record, best in the East.
“Joe has been wanting to be a head coach for a while,” Langford said. “He waited all this time, and now he’s got the opportunity.”
Langford will never forget his early days working alongside Mazzulla in Boston.
The two worked to refine Langford’s jump shot, a work that remains in progress. They spent more time sharpening Langford’s defensive chops.
“He’s the one that got me going with that,” said Langford, 22. “I’d say 60 percent (of the time) was defense, working on close-outs, angles, how to take certain steps when you get beat.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been pleased with what Langford has given the team in a pinch this season.
“He’s a pretty good defender,” Popovich said. “He knows how to play. He’s feeling more and more confident with the minutes.”
It has been an important season for Langford, who came into Saturday averaging 6.9 points over 24 appearances, including 11 starts.
His contract expires at the end of the season, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Whatever Langford accomplishes, where ever he lands, he will be sure to send a thank-you card to Mazzulla in Boston.
“I love that guy,” Langford said. “I probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
Vassell targets February return
The Spurs have not offered a definitive timetable for Vassell’s return after he goes under the knife Wednesday in New York.
Popovich said the procedure on Vassell’s troublesome left knee, which has kept him out of eight games this season, is not expected to end the third-year guard’s campaign.
“I’m thinking maybe a little bit after the All-Star break,” Popovich said.
That would put Vassell on path to return in late February at the earliest.
Vassell is averaging a career-best 19.4 points and 3.6 assists, while shooting a career-high 44.5 percent overall and 40.4 percent from 3-point range.
Popovich acknowledged the unfortunate timing of Vassell’s knee injury pressing pause on a successful season of development.
“I hate to see him missing this time, but that’s the way it is,” Popovich said. “I think he’ll pick back up pretty quickly, because he’s gained a lot of confidence in what he’s doing.”
Johnson hobbled, too
Already without their second-leading scorer, the Spurs lost top point-producer Keldon Johnson to a left hamstring injury in the first half of Friday’s 121-109 win over Detroit.
If Johnson remains out, it would serve to make the Spurs’ offense even more free-flowing than it already is.
“That’s a big piece of our team in general, especially offense,” Langford said. “The main thing on offense now, we have to move even more, because he gets a lot of plays called for him. It’s going to be less play-calling and more team basketball.”
Point guard Tre Jones was the prime beneficiary of extra scoring opportunities against the Pistons. He went for 25 points, one shy of equaling a career high.
“With our top-two scorers being out, that was definitely part of it,” Jones said. “The lanes were a little bit more open, and I was just trying to take what the defense gave me.”
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN
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