Trendon Watford

Congrats

 

reminds me a little of Brian Grant

 

Is Watford going to be good enough to play 10-20 minutes in the Nance role on our team if we are contending next year? If he is, you have to seriously consider trading Nance if Nance can net you the most assets right now. I’m not against keeping Nance either though.

 

yeah I agree. Plus Nance is a free agent after next season. No point in paying him if Watford can fill the same role, even if it’s not necessarily at the same level.

 

I just love these little stuff he does defensively



You can see his confidence growing by the game too. Like when he went coast to coast tonight. In the beginning of the season he literally went out of his way to not even dribble the ball. Fun development.

 

Whatever happens, make sure this man is getting as many minutes as possible in Chauncey’s system. He’s only playing between 15-20mpg currently, I assume due to us not know what direction to go in for the rest of the year. Heading into the homestretch, PLEASE play him 25+ minutes especially when we go full tank. He’s shown consistent improvement with every game. I was worried about him being slow, but that hasn’t seemed to hold him back defensively. We have to use the rest of this tanking year to see what we fully have from Watford. I was never big on two-ways, but turning a two-way in Watford into a cheap rookie deal with a full year learning the new system will certainly make me pay attention to them more.

He just turned 21, I think giving him a 3 or 4 year rookie scale contract and trading Larry would be best. He’s shown he’s a smart player. Defensively, I have confidence he can like Nance if not better. He can’t shoot yet, maybe he will be okay in year 3 or 4. I’d love to see him get opportunities to push the ball down the court more later in the season so we see what we can potentially be looking by 24-25. I wasn’t high on him in the draft. Glad we didn’t waste a pick on him, but would love to have him here on a rookie scale contract for the foreseeable future given what he’s shown.

 

PF of the future?

Mr. Intangibles

 

No, but certainly looks like he could be a decent backup. Just needs to play more in his natural position of PF instead of C. Like Powell needs to be in his natural position of SG.

 

Per/36
A: Nance
B: Watford

Advanced:


No I’m not arguing that Watford is better, or even as good as Nance. But if he continues to develop that’s the type of player I see him being. Also will force the team into some interesting decisions but we can save that for another thread.

 

these are eye opening plays. not many rookie bigs can do this.

 

T-Dubs has definitely earned himself a contract for next year. Not only when he is improving, I like seeing his occasional ability to create a bit. Will happily take all of that.

 

He’s got an interesting skill set.

Going back to his college days the floater is obviously his main strength scoring wise. That part of his game reminds me of richaun Holmes. Holmes is a double digit scorer who scores the majority of his buckets on that shot. So in that sense, Watford is a center.

But then you factor in his build, ball handling, playmaking, his ability to guard the perimeter, and he’s more of a four, maybe even a three in jumbo lineups.

he’s definitely gonna get a contract, we have too many openings next season anyway. The real question is what it means for Nance, because I don’t see them coexisting unless one of them just learns how to shoot consistently over the summer. I don’t wanna trade nance but a guy like him is gonna be in demand by playoff teams. If we have a cheaper internal option to replace him, I don’t see why we wouldn’t explore that market. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but we could get more for him than for Roco imo.

 

i'll be comfortable giving Watford 15-20 mins on a playoff roster next year. But we still haven't seen Larry fully be utilized to the max of his abilities yet this season. I think he can project to be a starter on a good team, but our roster construction is so out of whack, we might be better suited to just recoup our pick for him.

I like his awareness more than anything. He's solid on defense and knows when to take charges, and that's a skill that not many vets know how to do. And he flashes to the right spot on his cuts at the perfect time. Needs to improve his skills drastically, but he has the mental stuff down. He can be the future backup 4 we've always been in search of.

 

He's very decisive on offense especially, and almost always makes the right decision.

 

This is who he is scoring wise. He's gonna have one of these compilations too lol

 

Probably not our PF of the future, but he came here as an undrafted 2-way player, I don’t think anyone expected him to be. I would be just as happy with a guy that can be like Nance/Draymond lite but making $2-3m a year for the next 3-4 years.

I would really hope that both of our starting forwards will be a lot more athletic and mobile than Watford. But having Watford off the bench and being able to trust that he can come in and play 20-30mpg off the bench depending on lineups and foul trouble every night at a significantly cheap salary will be huge if we keep Dame. If you want to contend with a team that has Dames making $50m+ for a few seasons, you’ll need Watfords who make $2-4m for a few seasons. If you really think that highly of his intangibles and basketball iq, lock him up for cheap this summer.

I think there’s a strong possibility the whole league could be looking at Watford in year 2 and 3 of a 3-year deal as one of the most undervalued contracts in the league, similar to how we look at any second rounder that pops off in year 3.

 

Check out who is doing the interview

 

I heard in the radio yesterday that he leads the league in blow-by percentage (insert HCP wife joke here). never heard of it before but it’s how often a defensive player stats in front of his man. Small sample size, but it’s encouraging.

 

Watford is an average jump shot away from being a starting caliber four. He may be one without out it because he can put the ball on the floor and create, which creates space. And it’s not like he can’t score. He’s good around the basket and has a killer push shot/floater. He was a top 5 scorer in the SEC so I know he’s got the potential to contribute more there. Hopefully by next season he’s got more confidence in his jumper.

 

How does this trade impact our ability to convert his deal to a regular one? We don't have any empty roster spots now.