Philadelphia 76ers 2025 NBA free agency grades for every signing

Trendon Watford provides frontcourt playmaking

As fans around the NBA were treated to news of their team’s exciting new additions, the biggest signing announced in the first wave of Philadelphia’s free agency was the addition of Trendon Watford, the former Brooklyn Nets and Portland Trail Blazers forward who signed a two-year minimum contract.

Now normally, adding a minimum player would be pretty low on the proverbial priorities list, especially when nine-figure deals are being tossed around, but Watford is the rare minimum addition who could make major waves for the 76ers this fall, just like Yabusele last season.

Standing 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, Watford is a power forward-sized player who can do a little bit of everything at the position next to Embiid and George. He’s a plus passer for the position, averaging 2.6 assists per game with an assist rate of 21.0, a double-digit scorer and a capable rebounder to boot, averaging 3.6 boards in 20.8 minutes of action a night.

Sure, Warford isn’t a killer from beyond the arc, never attempting more than two 3-point attempts per game in any season of his NBA career so far, but he does all the little things that made players like Yabusele and Nicolas Batum fan favorites. Factor in his friendship with Maxey, and this is about as good a minimum deal the 76ers could ask for in a free agency period where they had very little money to spend.

Grade: A

Jabari Walker is more than a two-way reserve

What’s better than adding a potential role-player on a minimum contract? That would be adding a potential role-player on a two-way deal, with a chance to play meaningful minutes right from the jump without taking up a 15-man roster spot.

Like Watford, Jabari Walker is a 6-foot-9 product of the Trail Blazers’ system, playing together in 2022-23 before the LSU product landed in Brooklyn. Spending his entire career under Chauncey Billups up to this point, Walker came in and out of the Trail Blazers’ rotation over the past few years, averaging 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and .5 steals per game over 3,068 minutes of action.

Walker, too, isn’t an elite 3-point shooter, averaging just 1.4 attempts per game over three seasons, but he is a hustle player who has gotten better with each passing season, earning a positive DBPM for the first time last season as a 12.5 minutes per game contributor to one of the NBA’s worst teams.

On a team like the 76ers who really don’t have much in the way of proven depth at the power forward spot, Walker, Watford, and Broome could form a decent enough position battle during training camp, with the trio all technically capable of playing together or apart, depending on how Nick Nurse decides to set his rotation.

Considering Walker doesn’t count toward the 15-man roster and could be elevated to an NBA contract at any point, it’s hard not to call this move a certified A+.

Grade: A+

The 76ers want more Eric Gordon, but why?

After adding two exciting young forwards who fit what the 76ers were looking to do this offseason, Philadelphia signed… a 36-year-old who has been in the NBA since 2008?

Yes, when the 76ers decided to release Gordon earlier in the offseason, it was always meant to be a short-term exit, taking advantage of an NBA rule to hand the diminutive wing a small raise while cutting his cap hit as a minimum contract-signed veteran.

Would it have been a better idea to use Gordon’s roster spot on another player, be that Jared Butler, Jalen Hood-Schifino, or any of the other guards the team employed last season? Yes. But does Gordon still provide a little value to Philadelphia, both as a 3-point shooting wing and as a mentor figure for VJ Edgecombe, whom he played with on the Bahamian National Team during the Olympic trials? Yes, assuming Gordon doesn’t take away too many minutes from Edgecombe, Jared McCain, and the rest of Philadelphia’s young guards, this signing can be excused.

Grade: C-

What does Kyle Lowry bring to the 76ers?

And then there were two.

Kyle Lowry is not only a basketball legend but also a Philadelphia basketball legend, growing up in the city at Cardinal Dougherty, playing his college hoops at Villanova, and now finishing out his career as a member of the 76ers.

With that being said, Lowry is even further over the hill than Gordon, struggling to get much of anything going in 2024, as his -1.3 BPM clearly proves. In his Year 18 season, Lowry attempted just 3.3 shots per game over 18.8 minutes of action a night and barely even set up his teammates as the floor general of his prime, dishing out just 2.7 dimes per game to go with a career-low 3.9 points per game.

If it were just Lowry returning, this would be a C move, but considering any time Lowry spends on the court this fall will be a waste of valuable minutes that should instead go to his teammates, it’s hard to argue that this is a good signing. If Lowry wanted to return to Philadelphia, they should have handed him a clipboard and a whistle.

Grade: D