CHICAGO — The Philadelphia 76ers have seen some flashes of greatness from rookie guard VJ Edgecombe in the early going. The No. 3 overall pick in the draft is averaging 17.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.8 assists along with 1.4 steals through eight games. He has shown off all of the skills that made him a top pick in the draft.
One area of his game that has stood out, which he didn’t show much in college, is his 3-point shot. He is shooting 39.1% from deep and the Sixers have been able to rely on him to knock down an open triple as they move forward with this offense. One has to wonder if this is something coach Nick Nurse and Co. foresaw with him.
“He’s worked really hard this summer on it, you know what I mean? Really hard,” Nurse said pregame in Chicago on Tuesday. “So, I think it’s great when you put in the work and you see some results, right? So, I guess I just kind of leave it to that. He’s worked on his mechanics, and he’s got up the reps, and he’s done it literally, and you’ve heard me say this before, since the day we drafted him. Like, he started in on it, and he’s just kept at it. So it’s good to see.”
Nurse and his staff have always been big on development. Once the Sixers selected Edgecombe, the focus for Philadelphia was to get him in the gym and get him working on his 3-point shot in a big way. Shooting is paramount in today’s NBA and the Sixers wanted to get him in the gym.
“Well, the first part is, you get him in the gym, right?” Nurse continued. “Get him in the gym, get the live looks at them, and then start seeing whatever we can evaluate in a number of different ways, and then get the coaching staff together and study it a little bit, and then get a little plan of action. To me, that’s like the easy part. I won’t take any credit for that. It’s always back to how hard the player’s gonna work, right? All that credit goes to him.”
Edgecombe and the Sixers will continue to grow as a team as they look to head into the next phase of his rookie season.