It was an up-and-down season for the Philadelphia 76ers in general, but especially so for Trendon Watford.
The 25-year-old forward appeared in 53 games for the Sixers this season, starting in seven and averaging 16.3 minutes a night. Opportunity was far from consistent for Watford, though, as he worked in and out of the rotation at different points of the campaign. When the team was dealing with a plethora of injuries, Watford was able to step in. At other times, he battled injuries or simply became
a redundancy in the rotation as the squad got healthier and his weaknesses became more palpable.
All of those factors will come into play as the Sixers face a decision with Watford for 2026-27: pick up the team option for the second year of his two-year, vet minimum contract, or let him go. The deadline for the Sixers to pick up that option is June 29.
So, what will the Sixers do?
Let’s talk about the positives first. Watford’s best outing of the season came way back on Nov. 8, 2025, when he posted an impressive triple-double of 20 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists in a 130-120 Sixers win over the Raptors. He shot 8-for-10 from the floor (1-for-2 from long range) on top of a good defensive effort in what was his first ever start as a Sixer.
That performance possibly set expectations astronomically too high for Watford, who never posted quite those numbers again. He reached the 20-point mark just one more time the entire season, off the bench on March 21 against the Utah Jazz. Sure, it was against the Jazz, but still, 7-of-10 FG, nine rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes ain’t bad!
The problem is, that wasn’t exactly what the Sixers always got from him.
The thing with Watford is that he’s not a horrible player with the ball in his hands. For a forward — a 6-foot-8, 237 pound one, at that — he has some decent ball-handling and playmaking skills more usually attributed to a guard. The problem with that is that there are a number of players — Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, just to name a few — that the Sixers would rather have with the ball in their hands. That leaves Watford to playing off the ball… which is definitely not his strong suit. He does not shoot the long ball often or particularly well, he isn’t as active as a rebounder as you’d want for a guy his size, nor is he a great defensively by any means.
Consistency is the key if you’re going to be a rotation player, and Watford simply did not get or exude a lot of that as a Sixer. For every night he came up big for Philly, he’d have a few where he couldn’t make much impact at all. For every stint the team was shorthanded and needed him in large role, there were other times there was simply no room for Watford — especially toward the end of the regular season as the team was as “full-strength” as a Sixers team gets. A lot of his best moments came in garbage time of games all but decided already. Even for a Sixers team that basically had zero depth and was playing guys for 45 minutes a night, Watford simply wasn’t good enough to move the needle really at all.
Is he decent with the ball? At times. Does he seem like a great guy that his teammates love? For sure! Does he bring a level of high energy that the Sixers aren’t always famous for? Absolutely! But the bottom line problem with Watford for this Sixers team is that they would need him to be much better off the ball and at scoring some serious points, and he simply doesn’t score consistently enough to make up for those other major weaknesses on the floor.
For these reasons, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see Philadelphia decline to pick up Watford’s team option to return for the Sixers in 2026-27. Even at the vet minimum price tag, he simply may not bring enough to the table to make it worth the Sixers’ while.
