A lot of Philadelphia 76ers fans have been impressed with Trendon Watford for the most part this season. After all, he has been a positive addition to the squad in free agency, filling in numerous roles and wearing various hats for the team as they see fit. Unfortunately, it seems like the coaches are not particularly invested in him at the moment.
Watford has played a grand total of eight minutes in the last eight outings. In six of those games, he was a DNP-Coach's Decision. Since the 76ers got their injured stars back, Watford has been tossed to the aside, not even being an option for the coaching staff except when they need to clean up games in the typical blowouts. He has only appeared in two contests during that span, playing garbage time therein.
If anything, this is probably a showing of how the coaches view him as a limited role player. While Watford has numerous strengths in his game, there are growing concerns about his fit with certain key players. As such, it probably should not come as a surprise that the coaches have relegated him into being a benchwarmer.
The 76ers send a strong message to Trendon Watford without saying anything
Watford is a great ball-handler and passer for his position while also being an active piece on the defensive end. He brings a lot of energy to the group on the court, basically functioning as a Swiss Army knife type of player for the 76ers. However, his clear faults have outweighed the attendant pros in deploying him.
The 25-year-old is basically a non-shooter at this point, having drained just 20 percent of his total attempts from rainbow country. In fact, fans have noticed that he often plays well only when he is next to Tyrese Maxey, which likewise puts a damper on his fit in different lineup combinations.
Of course, with the 76ers in dire need of more spacing around their high-octane scorers, jettisoning Watford only becomes natural. Philly is already 23rd in the league in three-point shooting percentage, so entrenching a non-shooter into the usual rotation is probably going to be counterintuitive, if not outright wrong.
Unless the push comes to shove, the 76ers are probably going to stick to their current rotation, especially with Joel Embiid expected to miss at least the start of the postseason. Hence, it would take a lot for Trendon Watford to sneak into the normal loop of players. Unfortunately for him, the regular season is set to end in this Sunday.