This week’s invited more deadlines for NBA teams to operate within as full-out free agency sits mere hours away. Franchises were on the clock just yesterday in choosing which team-based extension options they’d like to pick up, putting the Washington Wizards on the hot seat regarding one of their instant-impact rookies.
Jamir Watkins played well enough to burn through all 50 of the games he was allowed to appear in under the constraints of the second round prospect’s two-way deal, eventually earning a full NBA deal as a token of the franchise’s appreciation for his destructive defense. He signed on through the remainder of this past regular season with a team option placing the ball in Washington’s court this summer, but the Wizards made the shocking decision to pass up on bringing Watkins back aboard the ship at his bargain of a $2.15 million price tag.
The Washington Wizards decline their team option for Jamir Watkins, a league source told @spotrac.
The Wizards did tender a qualifying offer to Watkins. He’ll now be a restricted free agent this offseason.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 30, 2026
This isn’t to say that they’re just cutting bait with the rising sophomore. Three outcomes may arise from the declined option pickup; if the Wizards don’t re-sign Watkins on another two-day deal, taking him down a path similar to the one that Tristan Vukcevic had to labor down, they can ink the wing to a multi-year deal of both parties’ choosing or watch him walk elsewhere in restricted free agency.
The Case for Watkins
Those who didn’t watch the latter months of the 2025-26 Wizards may understand Watkins getting lumped in with Vukcevic, even if the stretch big’s defensive shortcomings couldn’t contrast more dramatically against the dogged perimeter stopper. But on a roster desperately lacking in deterrents to bolster the back court, his potential loss would be a subtly-devastating one.
He averaged 1.1 steal and half a block over 20 nightly minutes, numbers that scaled up into 2.8 stocks per 36 minutes. Watkins’ effort as a pass-deflector and offensive rebounder were enough to make him the rare Wizard with a positive on/off swing, with his personal sample size consistently ranking among the game’s best defenders according to databallr’s defensive impact estimators.
Getting in tight with the defensive elite is hard enough, but especially so considering his team’s 17-65 record and how little they were likes by most other metrics.
Wizards rookie Jamir Watkins 15 PTS (6-7 FG, 3-4 3P, 107% TS), 8 REB, 1 AST, 2 BLK vs. Cavs https://t.co/yMIcfKuGjb pic.twitter.com/N5MygPZQO2
— Role Player Performances (@BenchHighlights) December 13, 2025
Watkins remains held back from competing for a starting spot by his raw offensive abilities, and given that he’s a week out from turning 25 years old, that element of his game can’t be expected to dramatically blossom by this point in his basketball journey.
The jump shot is creaky with sub-par results on marginal volume, but that doesn’t mean that the Wizards should tempt fate in allowing him to test the open market unless they’ve already got a more substantial offer brewing.
He can’t match the in-house intrigue of an Alex Sarr or a Kyshawn George, though Watkins will be more necessary than some fans realize as Washington prepares to trot out an offensively-tilted backcourt rotation of Trae Young, Tre Johnson Bub Carrington and, soon, AJ Dybantsa. Watkins’ presence was constantly felt amidst the Wizards’ desire to get more defensively stout, and assuming the Wizards really are in the business of rewarding those who deem themselves worthy of big league burn, he’ll soon be extended.
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