V.J. Edgecombe opened his inaugural season in the NBA on fire, exploding against the Celtics for a 76ers record 34 points in his first NBA game. He also finished the game with 7 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Since then, Edgecombe has seemingly cooled down, falling to fifth on the NBA’s most recent Kia Rookie Ladder, now trailing behind multiple players he was selected over. With that being said, Edgecombe is still regularly proving that he was the correct selection for the 76ers to make with the third pick in this past draft.
Edgecombe has so far appeared in 23 games this season for the Sixers, starting each of them. In those games, he has averaged 15.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals a night. Among rookies, he is one of only two players to be in the top five in each of these categories, demonstrating the multi-faceted utility that the Sixers fell in love with.
While his shooting splits are not perfect so far in his young career at 42.9/39.3/77.2, they are comparable, and even better, than other rookie top-five selected shooting guards in recent memory, like Anthony Edwards (41.7/32.9/77.6) and Jaden Ivey (42.9/35.1/74.9). Typically, this is something that young guards improve on following their rookie seasons.
Edgecombe is also leading all rookies in another key categories that show why he fits so well on this team: Fast Break Points per game. VJ, the younger half of the VJ Maxx Duo, is currently averaging 3.3 fast-break points per game, with Dylan Harper and Cooper Flagg both trailing him at 3.2 and 3.1 points, respectively.
The Sixers, and Tyrese Maxey especially, like to get out and run in transition. Maxey, in fact, averages the second-most transition possessions per game in the entire league at 6.6. With Edgecombe clearly so willing to run in transition with Maxey, it makes the duo a dangerous one-two punch anytime they take off after a steal or deflection.
Mentioning deflections, VJ also leads all rookies in that category with 3.2 a night. He is a pure hustler on the court and showcases his commitment to doing the little things right every time he is on the court. To prove this, Edgecombe not only leads every rookie in loose balls recovered per game, but he is second in the entire NBA with 1.5 a night, beating out guys like Josh Hart, Dyson Daniels and Onyeka Okongwu.
While it may sometimes be enticing to see guys like Kon Knueppel, Derik Queen or Jeremiah Fears showing off for their teams, it is also important to note the type of teams these other guys play for. Fears and Queen are on a 6-22 New Orleans Pelicans team. Kon’s Hornets are 9-18. Even the first overall pick Cooper Flagg, who has been incredible as of late for the Mavericks, is on an 11-17 team.
While this was in no way meant to discredit the other fantastic rookies from this class, this Sixers team currently sits at 14-11 and in the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference standings. A big part of that is because of the player the team selected at pick 3 in the 2025 NBA draft. VJ is contributing on a team with legitimate playoff aspirations for this season and is doing so in an impressive way, and both the Sixers team and their fans should be glad that this uber-athletic and talented young guard is on their squad for the foreseeable future.
