PDA

View Full Version : Trajan Langdon Named Nets Assistant GM



Rich
03-08-2016, 03:00 PM
Nice news for a great Dukie --

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2622973-trajan-langdon-named-nets-assistant-gm-latest-contract-details-and-reaction

lotusland
03-08-2016, 03:14 PM
Nice news for a great Dukie --

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2622973-trajan-langdon-named-nets-assistant-gm-latest-contract-details-and-reaction

I didn't know Trajan was working in an NBA front office but sounds like he's done well since retirement from basketball. There's something to be said for playing 3-4 years and leaving with a Duke degree for a marginal NBA talent. I guess a lottery pick should almost always go but is a late first rounder necessarily going to come out ahead leaving early if he never gets a 2nd NBA contract? Anyway, congrats to Trajan.

sagegrouse
03-08-2016, 05:26 PM
I didn't know Trajan was working in an NBA front office but sounds like he's done well since retirement from basketball. There's something to be said for playing 3-4 years and leaving with a Duke degree for a marginal NBA talent. I guess a lottery pick should almost always go but is a late first rounder necessarily going to come out ahead leaving early if he never gets a 2nd NBA contract? Anyway, congrats to Trajan.

Not sure what you mean, but one observation (made in an email by someone else) is that Trajan's time in Moscow has really paid off in his new position with the Nets.

79-77
03-08-2016, 05:36 PM
Langdon was one of my all-time favorite Duke players. He was a fantastic shooter, MONEY in crunch time, overcame a serious injury to have a great college career (3 times 1st-team All-ACC) and was a key part of rebuilding the program after it bottomed out when Coach K missed the 1994-95 season following back surgery. He was a 2nd-team All-American as a senior. He also graduated from Duke as a double major in math and history.

(Regarding his role in rebuilding the program: Trajan, as a redshirt sophomore, had a huge, then-career-high 28-point game in Cameron vs UNC in 1997 as Duke, starting a small lineup with Trajan, Wojo, Capel, McLeod and Carrawell, and Nate James, Ricky Price and Newton off the bench, snapped a 7-game losing streak to UNC. That UNC team included Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Ed Cota. It was one of my all-time favorite Duke-UNC games. Trajan hit a 3 -- his 7th of the game, on 12 attempts -- with 41 seconds to go to push Duke's lead to 75-70. The crowd went insane. When UNC fouled to stop the clock about 15 seconds later, Trajan and Capel did the chest-shove high-5 and Trajan yelled something like "that's f---ng mine, motherf-----!" It was beautiful.)

Trajan didn't do much in the NBA -- at the end of the day, he wasn't fast enough to be an NBA shooting guard -- but had a terrific career in Europe, including Euroleague Final 4 MVP, 2-time All-Euroleague first team and Euroleague all-decade team.

Langdon worked for 3 years as a scout with the Spurs, then joined the Cavs last year in a more senior FO role. I've read today that he's quite well regarded around the NBA. As a Brooklynite, I'm thrilled that he's joining Sean Marks to clean up the ginormous mess that Billy King left here.

The Iceman (I always preferred that nickname to "Alaskan Assassin") returns!

gus
03-08-2016, 06:15 PM
Langdon was one of my all-time favorite Duke players. He was a fantastic shooter, MONEY in crunch time, overcame a serious injury to have a great college career (3 times 1st-team All-ACC) and was a key part of rebuilding the program after it bottomed out when Coach K missed the 1994-95 season following back surgery. He was a 2nd-team All-American as a senior. He also graduated from Duke as a double major in math and history.

(Regarding his role in rebuilding the program: Trajan, as a redshirt sophomore, had a huge, then-career-high 28-point game in Cameron vs UNC in 1997 as Duke, starting a small lineup with Trajan, Wojo, Capel, McLeod and Carrawell, and Nate James, Ricky Price and Newton off the bench, snapped a 7-game losing streak to UNC. That UNC team included Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Ed Cota. It was one of my all-time favorite Duke-UNC games. Trajan hit a 3 -- his 7th of the game, on 12 attempts -- with 41 seconds to go to push Duke's lead to 75-70. The crowd went insane. When UNC fouled to stop the clock about 15 seconds later, Trajan and Capel did the chest-shove high-5 and Trajan yelled something like "that's f---ng mine, motherf-----!" It was beautiful.)

Trajan didn't do much in the NBA -- at the end of the day, he wasn't fast enough to be an NBA shooting guard -- but had a terrific career in Europe, including Euroleague Final 4 MVP, 2-time All-Euroleague first team and Euroleague all-decade team.

Langdon worked for 3 years as a scout with the Spurs, then joined the Cavs last year in a more senior FO role. I've read today that he's quite well regarded around the NBA. As a Brooklynite, I'm thrilled that he's joining Sean Marks to clean up the ginormous mess that Billy King left here.

The Iceman (I always preferred that nickname to "Alaskan Assassin") returns!

Trajan was in my differential equations class. Meanwhile, down the road ... nevermind.

Kdogg
03-08-2016, 07:37 PM
I didn't know he was a scout for the Spurs for three years. How long before every NBA team has someone who has worked for the Spurs?

dukelifer
03-08-2016, 07:45 PM
Trajan was in my differential equations class. Meanwhile, down the road ... nevermind.

The GM job has gotten very quantitative - Trajan has the rare combination of basketball smarts and a high end math background.

sagegrouse
03-08-2016, 08:27 PM
The GM job has gotten very quantitative - Trajan has the rare combination of basketball smarts and a high end math background, combined with fluency in Russian, the language of the folks who own and run this franchise.

FIFY

Henderson
03-09-2016, 10:01 AM
As a Brooklynite, I'm thrilled that he's joining Sean Marks to clean up the ginormous mess that Billy King left here.


Was Billy King responsible for the mess? I don't follow the Nets as you probably do, but my impression from a distance is that the horrible deal between the Nets and Celtics remains a primary cause of the current Nets problems and that Prokhorov pushed that on King. Not so perhaps?

Anyway, I'm happy for Trajan. He's a young man on the rise, and a poster boy for the benefits of international living and learning foreign languages. You just never know when those things will come in handy, but they are almost never a bad idea.

79-77
03-09-2016, 01:48 PM
Was Billy King responsible for the mess? I don't follow the Nets as you probably do, but my impression from a distance is that the horrible deal between the Nets and Celtics remains a primary cause of the current Nets problems and that Prokhorov pushed that on King. Not so perhaps?

Anyway, I'm happy for Trajan. He's a young man on the rise, and a poster boy for the benefits of international living and learning foreign languages. You just never know when those things will come in handy, but they are almost never a bad idea.

In a word: yes.

No doubt King was pressured by ownership into a "splashy move/win now" approach, but that approach didn't need to be implemented as catastrophically as it has been. He wildly overpaid for Pierce and Garnett, whom many observers thought were going to be fire-sold by Boston anyway that summer. He didn't bother lottery-protecting the #1 pick he sent to Portland for Gerald Wallace. When that pick turned into #4 overall, he blithely justified it by saying that there were only 3 good players in the draft anyway -- and then that pick turned into Damien Lillard. He brought in Joe Johnson, who was a good, but not great, player, but had the 2nd-highest contract in the NBA. He then gave Darren Williams the 4th-highest contract in the NBA, whereupon Williams immediately went into a steep decline.

King's era here was an unequivocal disaster.

jv001
03-10-2016, 07:21 AM
In a word: yes.

No doubt King was pressured by ownership into a "splashy move/win now" approach, but that approach didn't need to be implemented as catastrophically as it has been. He wildly overpaid for Pierce and Garnett, whom many observers thought were going to be fire-sold by Boston anyway that summer. He didn't bother lottery-protecting the #1 pick he sent to Portland for Gerald Wallace. When that pick turned into #4 overall, he blithely justified it by saying that there were only 3 good players in the draft anyway -- and then that pick turned into Damien Lillard. He brought in Joe Johnson, who was a good, but not great, player, but had the 2nd-highest contract in the NBA. He then gave Darren Williams the 4th-highest contract in the NBA, whereupon Williams immediately went into a steep decline.

King's era here was an unequivocal disaster.

You are probably correct, but boy, could that Dude play some terrific defense. Just ask Mark Macon. GoDuke!