Walker Kessler (C, UTA) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 16

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 24% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Can you imagine a future in which the Gobert Trade is actually the Walker Kessler trade? We might be getting there, folks! Well, maybe not, but bear with me for a minute as WK couldn't be playing better and more surprising basketball for the Jazz since arriving in Salt Lake City as part of Utah's rebuilding firesale.

The first month-and-change of play wasn't really one to drool about Kessler's skill set. He didn't reach 350 total minutes of play through his first 22 games, averaging just 16 always playing off the pine. Things changed on December 2 and they have never gone down for him since that day.

Kessler put up a 20-11 double-double against Indy on December 2, his first dub-dub of the year in just 25 minutes coming off the bench. He hit 7-of-7 shots and 7-of-8 freebies. From that day on, Kessler is averaging a nightly 9-9-1 with 2+ BPG on top of that.

Two players are putting up that line since December 1. One is Kessler, and the other one is not Gobert, but rather another young gun (Nic Claxton.) Kessler has been sublime for the Jazz, who might actually be thinking why the hell did they trade for Kelly Olynyk in the first place--unless of course, they can flip him for assets before the February 9 trade deadline.

Kessler has started nine consecutive games through Saturday, playing 27 MPG and putting up a nightly 11-10-1 stat line with 2.3 BPG. Since he became a daily starter on December 10, only Kessler, Claxton, and Embiid have played 8+ games while averaging a double-double and 1.5+ BPG.

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