On this day, Boston coach Brad Stevens and Celtics Joe Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Phil Pressey, Jared Sullinger, and Romeo Langford debuted for the team, while Rajon Rondo dropped 24 assists.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, former Celtics head coach and current Boston President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens coached his first regular-season game in that role after being hired away from the Butler Bulldogs earlier in the year to head to the Celtics to accept his first NBA job.
The tilt was unfortunately a loss to the Toronto Raptors to start the Stevens era with the franchise, though at least a close one to the tune of 93-87. Stevens’ best performing players were forward Jeff Green with 25 points and 5 rebounds, big man Brandon Bass with 17 points.
The game wasn’t just Stevens’ first with the Celtics.
This is every player in Boston’s history who wore the Celtics’ No. 9 jersey for at least one game as of September 2022.
The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.
In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history, with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.
Today’s installment focuses on the 15 players who wore No. 9 over the years as of September 2022.
How should we grade the pick with hindsight on our side?
He may no longer be a Boston Celtic — he as dealt to the San Antonio Spurs in the trade that brought back Derrick White — former Celtics draft pick Romeo Langford will always be seen in terms of how he’s done as a draft prospect through the lens of Boston’s front office.
While he has been a helpful player despite missing a significant portion of his career because of numerous injuries, as a late lottery pick he has fallen short of being the player many had hoped he could become — at least this far into his relatively young career as a 2019 class member.
How would one grade the pick given who else might have been available for the Celtics to select?
The folks over at the Hoops Reference YouTube channel did their best to answer that question in a recent clip grading the 2019 prospects in 2022; take a look at the clip embedded above to hear what they had to say about Langford.
Was it the Celtics — who sent out Romeo Langford and draft assets also — or the Spurs?
On Feb. 10, 2022, guard Derrick White was traded from the San Antonio Spurs to the Boston Celtics for Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 first-round draft pick, and a 2028 first-round pick swap. Decried at the time as too costly, White has gone on to play a significant role in the Celtics becoming one of the best teams in the NBA on both ends, averaging 11 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game with his new team this season.
On the other end of the deal, Langford did not play much due to a hamstring injury, while Richardson has logged 11.4 points, 2.9 boards, and 2.3 assists per contest while shooting considerably better (44.4% vs. 30.6%) from 3.
Which team — if any — won the trade? A San Antonio Spurs fan YouTuber TSR Sports put together his own analysis of the deal and its after-effects and came up with an answer that might surprise you.
Check out the clip embedded above to see one perspective on who won the trade now that we are at the end of the 2021-22 NBA season.
The former Celtics wing had a rough start to his NBA career — would delaying its start have been wiser?
Was former Boston Celtics No. 14 overall pick Romeo Langford not ready for the NBA? Should he have stayed in college longer, and if there had been the means to make money off of a player’s likeness as one can with the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rule changes recently instituted at the NCAA level?
Recent changes to the landscape of the various paths to get into the NBA have shaken up the status quo, and players like Langford coming up now have more options to get to the pros without necessarily rushing the process to the prospects’ financial detriment.
In a recent episode of the CLNS Media podcast “The A-List,” hosts Gary Washburn, Kwani A. Lunis and A. Sherrod Blakely debated the pros and cons of such changes, and whether they would have helped a player like Langford succeed faster upon ascending to the NBA.
Watch the clip embedded above to hear their respective takes on this issue!
While far from Celtics lifers, these three will be missed.
Whenever a team makes major moves at an NBA trade deadline as the Boston Celtics did this year, the bulk of fan and analyst attention is on the incoming haul acquired by the club, with the outgoing players in the deal usually a mere afterthought if addressed in depth at all.
But these are real people with real ties to the city, the fans, and their teammates, and should be paid respect for the work they put in with the franchise. With this in mind, let’s take a moment to pay our respects to the play of former Celtics Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson, and Dennis Schroder, all of which are now sporting different uniforms when on the clock.
A tribute highlights video was put together in their honor by fan YouTuber Tomasz Kordylewski in the clip embedded below — give it a watch to reminisce about the best plays they had in green and white.
Boston will also send out a top-4 protected 2022 draft pick, per reports.
The Boston Celtics are reportedly trading veteran shooting guard Josh Richardson to the San Antonio Spurs for point guard Derrick White, according to The Athletic and Stadium NBA insider Shams Charania. Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe adds the details of the trade, which includes Romeo Langford for salary-matching purposes as well as a top-four protected 2022 first-round pick.
The Celtics successfully managed to rehabilitate Richardson’s value this season after a few stints with teams that were a questionable fit for the Tennessee product took some of the shine off of his game. Now, he will head to the Spurs — a team that rarely deals mid-season — for White, a 27-year-old point guard who has shown improved court vision with San Antonio this season even as his shot from deep has taken a step back.
Stay tuned to this developing story.
The Boston Celtics are trading Josh Richardson to the San Antonio Spurs for Derrick White, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Boston looks to be a little healthier than expected against Miami with this news.
The Boston Celtics have upgraded shooting guard Romeo Langford to available for the Celtics home game with the Miami Heat Monday night while also listing veteran reserve guard Dennis Schroder as probable.
Langford had left Boston’s 107 – 97 road win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday evening with heel soreness, while Schroder — who has been listed as dealing with right Achilles tendinopathy — had not previously been listed on the team’s injury report with the concern, hinting it is likely a minor complaint that bears monitoring as the Celtics gear up to face the Heat at TD Garden Monday night.
The Celtics have been as dinged up as almost any team in the league after multiple extended absences to COVID-19 and more run-of-the-mill injuries have conspired to rob Boston of many players’ availability this season, so the news both may be able to play against a tough Miami team is certain to be well-received.
The folks at Tankathon are projecting that Boston leans into their defensive identity at the 2022 NBA draft with this pair of projected picks. https://t.co/HDooXVU1eI
The Indiana product will miss the home tilt with Orlando, per the team.
The Boston Celtics announced that reserve shooting guard Romeo Langford will be a scratch against the Orlando Magic in their tilt with the Florida team at TD Garden Sunday evening due to a non-COVID illness.
The Indiana product will at least not end up having yet another stint in the NBA’s health and safety protocols with the illness being one of hopefully a less serious sort, and the opponent is about as amenable as can be asked for to be without the services of the New Albany native, with Orlando being among the league’s worst teams. But with several other players out in the league’s protocols, Boston will be hoping for a swift of a return as possible for Langford.
The former No. 14 pick has averaged 5.3 points and 3.2 rebounds for the Celtics this season, his healthiest in terms of availability despite this most recent setback and a stint of his own in the protocols to start the season.
It’s not implausible, and we’d have to think about this one a while before making a decision.
The part of the NBA season where we start to see blockbuster trade dealsproposed en masse by analysts of the sport is starting in earnest with the availability of players who signed deals over the summer to be traded beginning a little less than two weeks from now.
And one such blockbuster trade projection was put together by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes that would see the Boston Celtics finally get their third star by shipping out some players who have deep roots with the team. The proposal is not far off from a similar deal proposed on an episode of our in-house “Celtics Lab” podcast, so we aren’t opposed to the deal in principle, though the ask would sting quite a bit.
Let’s take a look at Hughes’ hypothetical deal.
While there are other potential candidates who might fit the bill, it does seem surprising he is evidently not in the mix. https://t.co/YAbQxrAeGe
