Brad Stevens reacts to Romeo Langford and Grant Willams picks

Brad Stevens made his first public comments since the season ended on Thursday night after the Celtics selected Romeo Langford and Grant Williams in the first round. Here's his full reaction to the first round picks as well as the team's shift towards building a younger core in a brief press conference.

On Romeo Langford: “I think Romeo’s a really versatile, good player. He’s been a good player for a long time. A guy that as far as the state of Indiana high school basketball was probably as followed as anybody in the last 15 years. Obviously had an incredible high school career, had a really good start to his college career, tore some ligaments in his thumb, played through it most of the year, and can do a lot of things on the basketball. He has been well coached both in high school and in college, and a guy we think has a lot of things that translate to the NBA. Obviously a long, versatile, athletic wing. He can play multiple positions, can handle the ball, can play in pick and roll, can do some of that stuff. So we’re excited about Romeo.

On Langford's thumb injury and shooting woes: “Yeah, I think that’s something he’s going to have to continue to work on to improve. I don’t think there’s any doubt that if you picked an area that he’s going to have to work on, that would be it. He’s a better shooter than he shot this year, and as noted by both his touch, his free throws, and the way he shot it in high school. So the thumb, I think, was impactful. But there’s no question as the line extends, yeah, he’s going to have to work to get better. But all indications are that he will. He’s a good worker, he’s a hard worker, he’s a hard playing guy.

On Aron Baynes trade (Can't comment since it's not official yet): "Um, you guys all know how I feel. I think I’ll answer that when it’s appropriate. I don’t want to make any statements that would be considered an insinuation. You guys all know how I feel about him."

On Grant Williams: "Super smart, a guy I kind of look at as a guy with a point guard’s mind. You can run offense through him at the elbows and on the block, at the top of the key. He thinks the game. He’s a tough, tough guy. And he’s a versatile player who can shoot the ball. He can shoot it from three – they didn’t need him to do that, but his shot looks good, and that will be a pretty easy transition for him, and again, very intelligent. We’re looking forward to having him. We think he translates well. You couldn’t be more impressed with the kid when you sit down with him."

Langford's health status: "He had surgery, I have no idea about summer league. From what I was told he had just started doing workouts this past week. That was just heresay so I don’t even know. He had the surgery maybe late March, April sometime. We interviewed him at the combine and he was not cleared by then."

On uncertain roster moving forward: "I think that everything is an opportunity, right? It's been pretty well documented how this year went and how in the moment, it was pretty disappointing. It was something that we all were disappointed by. I think if I take a step back and look at it from a big picture standpoint, you say, 'Okay, we've been to a couple of Eastern Conference Finals and a second round' and that wouldn't feel as bad. Obviously, the way this year went, it didn't feel good. With that said, because of the great work that our front office has done over the years, even when we are in a position where we'll have some uncertainty as we move forward, we are in pretty good shape. I think that, obviously, these are new opportunities. An opportunity to really evaluate where we are, what we need to do and everything else. We feel good about our foundation and want to learn from the disappointment that we all shared. Also, we're optimistic and positive as we look towards the future. That's been the whole vibe in the building, but I certainly understand why it may not be on the outside.

Assessing himself this offseason: We have another pick coming up so I may not have time. I may not have time to go through this by (pick) 51. (laughs) There's a lot. I don't think it is anything you wouldn't have known prior to coming into the year. Sometimes when you go through steps, you can go through every part of the year and say what could all of us done differently? What could I have done differently? I have thoroughly vetted myself and thoroughly vetted what we could have done better. That said, the competition is great and the teams that were ahead of us at the end of the year deserved to be. They were better than us. Our task and our goal is to get better.