May 28, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Trendon Watford showed upside during his first year with the Sixers, but never produced on a consistent basis.
Now that the 2025-26 Sixers season is complete after a thrilling first-round series comeback and a jarring second-round sweep, it is time to reflect on the year that was.
Welcome to Sixers year-in-review, where each player's campaign will be analyzed with a combination of statistics, film and reporting.
Up next: Trendon Watford, an unorthodox point forward signed to a veteran's minimum contract with a second-year team option to provide the Sixers some extra ball-handling and shot creation. On multiple occasions, Watford's season stopped and started – he created significant momentum at times, but often failed to sustain it.
Health played a major part in Watford's season, too, from a preseason hamstring issue that held him out of training camp to an adductor injury that halted his strongest stretch of play. With a decision coming on his team option, where does Watford fit into the Sixers' picture moving forward?
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Tyrese Maxey | Paul George | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes | VJ Edgecombe | Dominick Barlow | Kelly Oubre Jr. | Trendon Watford
Watford is a change-of-pace player, not a full-fledged rotation piece, next to these Sixers' best players.
Watford is listed 6-foot-8 and 237 pounds – the frame of a bruising forward – but his skill set largely resembles that of a guard. After Watford's first start of the season resulted in a 20-point triple-double, Joel Embiid compared him to Ben Simmons. He is a playmaker first, with some scoring chops out of the post that head coach Nick Nurse – clearly a Watford fan – liked to utilize out of timeouts.
When the Sixers were missing key pieces constantly in the early portion of the season, Watford's shot creation ability was useful. He was one of the bench's primary ball-handlers, occasionally freeing up his close friend from his teenage years, Tyrese Maxey, to play off the ball.
Once the Sixers were even close to resembling a team at full strength, though, Watford became somewhat redundant. His value is dependent on his ball-handling, but the Sixers would always rather have the ball in Maxey's hands – or Embiid's hands, or Paul George's hands, or VJ Edgecombe's hands.
That is the issue Watford faces moving forward in Philadelphia (if he sticks around). The Sixers already have better options to do what he is best at.
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Sixers' Net Rating with Watford, Maxey and Edgecombe on the floor: -10.7.
The issue is not merely Watford failing to be additive without the ball in his hands. It is also that he is simply not good enough elsewhere to be an impactful contributor without the ball.
Watford is just about a non-shooter from beyond the arc; he is a career 32.5 percent shooter on very low three-point volume and only made 20 percent of his long-range tries in his first year with the Sixers. He is also not an impactful defender whatsoever. Watford may not be a massive weak link on that end of the floor, but even calling him a neutral-impact player on that end of the floor might be generous. His ability to initiate transition offense would come in handy more often if Watford were a more forceful rebounder, but he does not have much of a presence on the boards for someone his size.
So, when Watford shared the floor with the two players the Sixers will be leaning on for more minutes than any other for years to come, the results were bad. Watford's skills are difficult to utilize when he shares the floor with multiple high-usage guards, and his weaknesses make life harder for those players.
Watford on the frequency with which his role changed during the season, March 6:
"I just try to go along with it. It's not a bad thing, being able to play a lot of positions... Some games I might come in at the four, backup four. Some games I might come in at the one. Some games I might come in [and replace Kelly Oubre Jr.] at the three. It just varies, and obviously it's a good thing to be able to play a lot of positions. But my job is to just stay locked in and be ready whenever my name is called, whatever position it may be."
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Can Watford find any off-ball utility?
How does Watford combat the issue detailed above? The most obvious answer is always getting better as a shooter, and Watford can be counted as one of many Sixers role players whose games could reach new levels with improved shooting.
Watford's touch is what it is, and it is difficult to imagine him suddenly becoming remotely reliable from three-point territory. Can he become an elite screener who, when Maxey and Edgecombe get blitzed, can then make short-roll decisions in advantageous situations? That might be an easier way to imagine him having consistent utility when coexisting with the Sixers' guards.
The likeliest answer is that Watford will always be a flawed fit next to Maxey and Edgecombe and a somewhat cleaner fit alongside one of them. That might doom his chances of ever being a full-blown rotation piece. But on the right night – and more importantly, in the right lineup combination – Watford can make a difference.
If the price tag remains at or near the veteran's minimum, there is a case to be made for keeping a unique player whose teammates adore him. But the Sixers cannot build out their roster this summer banking on Watford being a consistent contributor.
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