#10, #9 — R.J. Barrett, Romeo Langford
R.J. Barrett and Romeo Langford are two highly regarded high school prospects that came in with all the hype in the world to the 2018-19 college basketball season.
After the season was over, the two had had very different responses to the seasons they produced.
Barrett, who was actually the #1 recruit in the 2019 NBA Draft class (that’s right, ahead of Zion), fell into more of a “Robin” role to Zion’s “Batman.” At times, Barrett chafed at the idea of being the second-best player on his team, but that didn’t stunt his usage rate, which still ended up being sky-high.
Langford was pretty much all Indiana had, and though he was able to lead them past future Final Four team Michigan State on two separate occasions during the regular season, it was not enough to send the Hoosiers to the Big Dance.
Still though, both of these players would be fairly good fits on the Atlanta Hawks in the 2019 NBA Draft. They both have good size and play a position of need at the three. Beyond that, both showed flashes of defensive upside and instincts, which is something they Hawks need to dramatically improve next season.
We have previously outlined some reasons why Langford would be a good fit and also think Barrett might even be a better fit than Duke’s final Big 3 member not named Zion (though not on this list), so neither of these picks would be in any way detrimental for the Atlanta Hawks.