Justin Edwards was one of the few bright spots of the Sixers\u2019 disastrous, cursed 2024-25 season. His second year in the NBA hasn\u2019t progressed as smoothly as both he and the Sixers would have liked. Fighting to make the fringes of the rotation, his field goal and three-point percentages have dropped significantly. In 15 games this year he\u2019s been DNP-CD.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been forced into the rotation as of late with 80% of the starting lineup out with injury for an extended period of time. Edwards has taken advantage of the opportunity, putting together three solid performances that helped the Sixers pick up two much-needed wins.<\/p>\n
He dropped 19 points on the Brooklyn Nets and 21 on the Portland Trail Blazers while being insanely efficient. Edwards shot 69% and 64% from the field in those games, respectively.<\/p>\n
His mentality over this stretch is very to similar to the team\u2019s as a whole as they have plummeted down the Eastern Conference standings. There\u2019s no time to reflect on it \u2014 he just needs to play quality minutes when he\u2019s out there to try to pick off a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of it like that \u2014 guys are down so I got a bigger role on the team,\u201d Edwards said after the Brooklyn game. \u201cSo I\u2019m just trying to take advantage of that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admittedly, it hasn\u2019t been easy for him to fight for his playing time. As understanding of the business as he is, he wants to be in the rotation and playing every night as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I\u2019m in the NBA, I\u2019m part of that percentage that\u2019s made it to the NBA,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t think like that at the end of the day because this is my dream job and this is something I want to do for a long time. It always comes back around so I just got to stay ready and stay patient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards sees the benefits of reserves deep on the bench having these games to build confidence while they\u2019re shorthanded. He hopes that\u2019s something that remains as the bigger names on the roster return from injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a confidence booster for coach,\u201d he said, \u201cbeing able to look down at the bench and say those guys are ready, they\u2019ve been playing consistent minutes the last couple of games.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of different ways the Sixers have to play based on who\u2019s available. That especially makes it a challenge for guys on the fringes of the rotation to figure out their exact role. Edwards is hopeful this stretch makes his spot a little more clear when things look more normal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I could be a lot more comfortable, but as far as what my role is on this team, I\u2019m getting a little more comfortable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Edwards will have to continue playing like this in the meantime to retain that rotation spot if and when the starters return from injury. Putting up 20 points a night is a good place to start though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Edwards was one of the few bright spots of the Sixers\u2019 disastrous, cursed 2024-25 season. His second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,38813],"class_list":["post-662811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-sixers-features"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116244495953995886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662811","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=662811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}