Can VJ Edgecombe take a leap in year two?

This feeling surrounding this upcoming Sixers’ season is one of great anticipation. Sure, most of that has to do with the monumental additions of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, but I’d argue that no small part of that excitement should be for the second season of VJ Edgecombe.

Here in Philadelphia, expectations are always set high, even for the youngest of players… but frankly, expectations for the 21-year-old guard should be sky high. The 2025 No. 3 overall pick showed numerous glimpses of absolute star quality in his rookie season, from high flying dunks to impressive athletics to brilliantly clutch buckets in the biggest moments — and everything in between. He averaged 16.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game across 75 appearances (all starts), playing a whopping 2623.3 minutes in the regular season, the 11th most in the entire association. He finished third behind Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel for Rookie of the Year.

Edgecombe has displayed skill, game intelligence and athleticism notably beyond his years. To put it simply, he was able to do things on an NBA floor that very few 20-year-olds are able to accomplish, even against some of the league’s biggest stars and teams.

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I see no reason why the same shouldn’t be true again this season — if anything, it should be even more true.

There has been a strange speculation that, somehow, playing alongside one of the greatest basketball players of all time in LeBron James and with another top league star in Jaylen Brown will stunt Edgecombe’s development. I, personally, vehemently disagree, so much so that I’ve already written all about that here, with some of the points of that article being reflected here as well. My bottom line of that piece was that, in reality, Edgecombe’s opportunity for development in year two only looks more promising now than it did a few months ago.

With the new-look Sixers lineup, Edgecombe should have plenty of room to do what he does best as an off-ball scorer, cutting through opposing defenses and finding the open space for catch-and-shoot buckets. It would be fair to anticipate a lot of open…

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Publish date : 2026-09-24 14:04:00

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