Getty Danny Ainge
Former Boston Celtics executive Danny Ainge is bringing in one of his former lottery picks to his current team, the Utah Jazz. The Athletic’s Tony Jones reported that Ainge signed the Celtics’ lottery pick from 2019.
“The Utah Jazz are signing Romeo Langford to an Exhibit 10 deal,” Jones reported via his personal X account.
The Utah Jazz are signing Romeo Langford to an Exhibit 10 deal, League Sources tell myself and @ShamsCharania
Langford is a former first round pick from the Boston Celtics
Langford was selected No. 14 in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Celtics, which was actually the Sacramento Kings‘ pick. The Celtics acquired that pick in a draft day deal with the Philadelphia 76ers that swapped Jayson Tatum for Markelle Fultz.
Langford played two and a half seasons for the Celtics before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs along with Josh Richardson for Derrick White in 2022. Langford’s issue in the NBA is being unable to stay on the floor because he hasn’t been able to shed the injury bug.
In four seasons, Langford has played a total of 141 games, which is less than two full NBA seasons, thus demonstrating that he is injury-prone. While Langford has been signed to a training camp deal, he joins Kelly Olynyk among the former Celtics players on the Jazz roster.
Rajon Rondo Wanted to ‘Out-Coach’ Brad Stevens in 2017
Former Celtics star Rajon Rondo revealed to JJ Redick on “The Old Man & The Three” that when he and the Chicago Bulls took on the Celtics in the 2017 NBA Playoffs, his primary intent was to out-coach Brad Stevens.
Rajon Rondo speaks on trying to outcoach Brad Stevens in the 2017 playoffs
The eighth-seeded Bulls led the first-seeded Celtics 2-0 but dropped the next four games after Rondo suffered an injury
“When I was going against the Celtics when I played for the Bulls, my whole mindset that entire series was to beat Brad Stevens,” Rondo said. “I was working on fourth-quarter execution plays that we could run in the fourth that Stevens hadn’t seen us play yet. So when we did run those plays, they weren’t able to make those counters or adjustments.”
Rondo revealed what other preparations he made before the series started.
“I think I watched maybe like four or five of (Stevens’) games to where his fourth-quarter plays they were calling sets that they ran for Isaiah (Thomas), (Al) Horford in that particular series to get ahead of the curve.”
Rondo played under Stevens in the 2013-14 season and the 2014-15 season before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
Brad Stevens Defends Trading for Kristaps Porzingis
During an August 29 appearance on WEEI’s “Jones & Mego,” Stevens explained why he decided to trade for Kristaps Porzingis despite his reputation for being injury-prone.
“The part that was very obvious was he’s 7-foot-3. He can play the 5 and the 4 and he can play with any of our 5’s and 4’s which I think is important,” Stevens said, as transcribed by MassLive. “If you bring in someone that is just a center, it’s hard to play them and Rob together. But if you bring in someone with the skills that Kristaps has, that has the skillset that Al has, you can mix-and-match a little bit. You can stay bigger longer. That’s something we couldn’t do as much last year with our smaller groups because a lot of our best players were guards.”
Stevens added that he’s “not concerned” about Porzingis’ injury and revealed that Porzingis made the decision he did because he “just determined he didn’t want to deal with lingering effects down the road.”