Trendon Watford (PF, POR) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 23

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 7% of leagues

ANALYSIS: According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (reporting on Sunday morning), the Portland Trail Blazers are leaning toward shutting down Damian Lillard for the remainder of the season. The Blazers, mind you, have been without Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Lillard, and Jusuf Nurkic for a while now because of different injuries/load-managing/tanking. At this point with the season lost, everything points toward running with the kids, including Trendon Watford.

Watford and Shaedon Sharpe have turned into late-season fantasy bloomers because of that. Watford in particular has started four of Portland's last five games through Sunday morning while playing 29 minutes in the one he didn't start.

Since playing 29 minutes back on March 6, Watford has never dropped below 23 minutes in any of the following games while always scoring at least 10+ points and averaging an actual 13-6-3-1 per-game stat line in that eight-game span. Talk about a change of role boosting one's production.

Watford is a must-roster, must-start player ROS for those managing in deeper leagues and formats. He will hit the eventual three-point shot (0.66 3MP per game in the last nine games) but his calling card is outright scoring (virtual guarantee for 10+ points these days).

He can provide nice rebounds and some assists (basically because Portland seemingly is refusing to play any sort of usable guard these days). He also comes with a steals upside, which is always welcomed. Even if just for a week and a half, grabbing some shares of Sharpe/Watford looks like a proper move to make.

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