CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 There\u2019s no magic formula \u2013 Daryl Morey used the allusion of a crystal ball \u2013 to vet draft prospects. But in VJ Edgecombe, Morey and the 76ers front office saw two important traits.<\/p>\n
First was a recognition of talent with humility, of an elevated starting point in an individual who knows they\u2019re far from their final form. Second was the passion to push toward it.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long in chatting with Edgecombe after he was selected No. 3 overall by the Sixers in the 2025 NBA Draft to grasp what Morey saw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I just need to continue growing in every aspect of the game,\u201d Edgecombe said in a Zoom call with members of the media from Brooklyn, where the draft was held. \u201cYou never can stop getting better. I\u2019m really focused on shooting the ball at a high level to release pressure off Joel and Tyrese and PG.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morey voiced the hope that with Edgecombe in the mix, the 76ers could have one of the league\u2019s better backcourts. It will be led by Tyrese Maxey and 2024 first-rounder Jared McCain. It will likely feature Quentin Grimes and possibly Eric Gordon, with Paul George and Justin Edwards among the wings.<\/p>\n
And it will have a similar outlook on basketball, from the soft-spoken yet tenacious McCain, to the budding star Maxey, to the new guard from the Bahamas by way of Baylor. Contained in that journey is a hunger and a shoulder chip, as much as for the undersized McCain or the late-blooming Maxey, that is familiar.<\/p>\n
It was evident to Edgecombe upon first meeting Maxey, who came to Philadelphia to watch the guard\u2019s pre-draft workout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great person, great person,\u201d Edgecombe said of Maxey. \u201cWe just got to know each other. We didn\u2019t even talk basketball the whole time; talked basketball here and there. It was just talking about, I\u2019m a huge fan of his game. But I got to know him, he\u2019s a great person, super energetic, full of joy, and that\u2019s someone I\u2019m definitely looking forward to working with. That\u2019s going to be my backcourt mate. Hopefully we retire on the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edgecombe brings plenty on the court. He\u2019s a long 6-4 with a 6-7 \u00bd wingspan. He averaged 15.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists in his one season at Baylor, where he was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He shot 34 percent from 3-point range and has the potential to be a plus defender in the NBA. He\u2019ll likely contribute as a rookie, though Morey cautioned that such a young player \u2013 he turns 20 in July \u2013 needs time to acclimate.<\/p>\n
Edgecombe is saying all the right things about his role with the 76ers. He understands that the ball will be in other hands, whether it\u2019s Maxey or George or Joel Embiid. He plans to spend the summer working on ways he can impact games without the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ll play well off of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been playing off the ball, so I don\u2019t need the ball to be impactful. Knowing the type of players they are, I feel like I\u2019ll be able to fit right in, play off of them, learn from them, help on the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also has a defensive mindset that speaks for itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mentality is not letting nobody score,\u201d Edgecombe said. \u201cI hate to see other people score. I just hate to see other people score. That\u2019s my thing. I just do not like see other people score.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s oversimplification to paint Edgecombe as the underdog coming to a city that adores them. But his journey informs the spark in his game. He was born in Bimini and will be just the seventh player from the Bahamas to play in the NBA. That group doesn\u2019t include Indiana-born Gordon, possibly a new teammate who has represented the Caribbean nation internationally since 2023. (Gordon holds a player option for next season that must be decided on in the next week.)<\/p>\n
Edgecombe came to the United States to play basketball, first in Florida as a ninth-grader, then in New York, where he blossomed into a five-star recruit. It\u2019s a blue-collar trajectory, fueled by hard work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that my path is different from everyone else, so I had to work a little harder, especially being from the Bahamas,\u201d he said. \u201cThere ain\u2019t no opportunities, nobody watching you play, no coaches coming to the Bahamas and saying, let me go recruit this kid for D1. So I know that my work ethic has to be a lot different from everyone else\u2019s, and that\u2019s why I work so hard. I just want to take care of my mama, my little siblings that look up to me. That\u2019s where my work ethic comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing about Edgecombe\u2019s conversation Wednesday made draft night seem like a culmination. Instead, it sounded like an invitation to keep pushing. And the passion behind that pursuit of improvement ranked as elite in the eyes of the 76ers as anything in his physical toolkit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the game,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like if you love the game, if you love something, you put time into it. I just always want to give love to the game, and that\u2019s just by working. The game has blessed me with so much in life. So why must I not put time into it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 There\u2019s no magic formula \u2013 Daryl Morey used the allusion of a crystal ball \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,8991],"class_list":{"0":"post-125480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dtd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114748163744137334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}