Dwyane Wade embraces comparisons to young 76ers star originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Dwyane Wade has heard the comparisons, and he’s cool with them.
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Since he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and even before then, V.J. Edgecombe has drawn comparisons to the three-time champion.
Wade, who was serving as an analyst for Prime Video during Philadelphia’s 109-102 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday night, finally addressed those comparisons and acknowledged that he too sees similarities between the two players.
“Very early on when I came into the league, I didn’t have a bag, I didn’t need to use it. I just used my speed and my quickness and my strength,” Wade said. “When I see VJ, I see VJ going downhill, the game is obviously open, it’s more spread, and so he’s a guy that once he plants that left foot, he’s going to the top of the roof. Just his ability to go downhill, beat his guy, beat that first guy and from there he takes off, it’s incredible.
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“I think one thing that Coach [Nick Nurse] mentioned that we don’t see is he does the little things,” Wade added. “When I first came in, I didn’t have the ball in my hand a lot. I had to learn how to do the little things. . .a lot of similarities in just going downhill, being fearless as well. He’s a fearless player, he probably jumps a little higher than me.”
The comparison has held up statistically, too. Through the first 24 games of their respective careers, the stats between Edgecombe and Wade are almost identical. They both averaged exactly 16.0 points, and Edgecombe had the edge in rebounds, while Wade had slightly higher assist and steal averages.
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Obviously Edgecombe has an extremely long way to go to have anything close to the career that Wade had, but he’s off to a solid start, and now he has a co-sign from the man himself.