Nets relish seeing big man Trendon Watford flourish through unlikely point guard skills

Ever since buying out Ben Simmons, the Nets have had a backup point guard problem.And an unlikely solution has emerged to solve it. For his first two NBA seasons in Portland, Trendon Watford was a backup big man.

After they waived him, he wasn’t even that. But in his second season with the Nets, he has emerged as something unforeseen — a 6-foot-9, 240-pound bully-ball ball handler.And they’re relishing it almost as much as he is. “He helps you win,” Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernández said before Watford had 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes of the Nets’ 107-99 loss to the Wizards on Monday.

“And he does that because he’s able to score, but also able to handle and playmake.He can play four positions, post up, and make threes.

So all those things are super valuable at his size and position.He’s another guy that I’m very happy with.

You can see in those 20 games [he’s played], we’ve been really good with him on the court.” Better than could’ve been expected. Entering play Monday, the Nets were 9-27 this season without Watford, but in those aforementioned 20 games they’ve gone a surprising 12-8. The latest example of that was Saturday’s victory in Philadelphia, when starting point guard D’Angelo Russell was sidelined.Watford stepped into the breach with 16 points and six assists, scoring 11 in the fourth quarter. Russell was out again Monday in Washington with a sprained ankle, and Watford came into the Wizards tilt averaging 14.4 points and 3.6 assists on 54.9 percent shooting in the five games since Simmons’ departure. He recorded 11 points, seven rebounds, and three assists against the Wizards.

“I’m having fun, just being able to play on-ball and do different things and use my skill set to the best of my ability.Starting this year off with some injuries and now being able to pick it back up, man, it’s fun,” Watford said.

“So I’m just glad.We put in a lot of work, I put in a lot of wor...