CAMDEN, N.J. — The NBA Draft Wednesday night started with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The No. 1 pick would be used on Cooper Flagg, a prospect so can’t-miss that even the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t mess it up. The No. 2 selection would see Dylan Harper join the passel of young stars in San Antonio.
The questions began when the 76ers were on the clock. Since the clock for contention in this town is ticking ever louder, the feeling should have been familiar.
With that pressure on, the Sixers wrote the sensible name on the card handed to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. For a team looking to balance present and future, it added a player in VJ Edgecombe whose game does just that.
The Sixers made the 6-4, 193-pound guard out of Baylor the latest acquisition they hope will prop open Joel Embiid’s championship window. On the spectrum of pro-readiness and long-term upside, Edgecombe falls in the sweet spot that the Sixers and team president Daryl Morey were aiming for.
“A dynamic athlete, potential All-Star, two-way player, will really help his team,” Morey said. “He’s got all these winning qualities that we think really fit. Great teammate. His story and what he’s done to get to this point is really unbelievable, and we think he’s on a great trajectory to take where he’s come from and continue to improve through Baylor, all the way through a very long and very promising NBA career.”
Edgecombe spent one season at Baylor, named the 2025 Big 12 Player of the Year and a second-team All-Big 12 selection. He averaged 15.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.1 steals per game. He shot 43.6 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3-point range for an effective field-goal percentage of 50.4.
And, if those numbers look low, a friendly reminder that Tyrese Maxey shot 42.7 percent from the field and 29.2 from 3-point range in his one season at Kentucky.
Edgecombe had six games of 20 or more points, including a 30-point effort against Kansas State. He is the highest draft pick in Baylor history, surpassing Ekpe Udoh, who went sixth overall in 2010. He’s the seventh player in NBA history born in the Bahamas, a group that includes No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton and former 76er Buddy Hield.
He’s a high-upside prospect whose game could go in a couple of different directions at the next level. He should be able to defend at a high level in the NBA, largely thanks to a 6-foot-7½ wingspan and his ability to pocket steals. Morey sees him being able to defend multiple positions and eventually grow into someone who can take the most difficult defensive assignment.
He’ll need to be more accustomed to playing off the ball, especially with some ball-dominant players at his new place of employment. But his mindset impressed the 76ers. He connected well with Maxey, who was present for his workout. The team recognized a crucial similarity in the desire to improve that Maxey, Edgecombe and Jared McCain all share.
“Where we can get more confidence is that a player has two things, which is, they understand that they’re not where they need to be, and they understand they’re not yet – pick your All-Star guard in the league,” Morey said. “And then they have the work ethic to close that gap. If a player has that, that’s very interesting to us generally.
“We’ve been fortunate that you can get a guy with talent, already playing at a high level at Baylor, and then also has not only a hopeful work ethic, but you could see, if you track back to the Bahamas and you track back through his pre-Baylor period all the way through, we’re excited about that.”
The 76ers avoided the potential circus that was Ace Bailey. The 6-8 forward, once regarded as the third-best player in this class if not second, passed up on working out for teams. While he still garnered rave reviews from others in the various other front-office speak categories, he would’ve been stepping into an environment with plenty of its own dysfunction. A base-level achievement Wednesday would’ve been to not add to that, which the 76ers succeeded in by letting him slip to Utah with the fifth pick.
There wasn’t a guaranteed fit among the reasonable options at No. 3. Kon Knueppel may adapt more quickly to life in the NBA but may not have as high an upside. Tre Johnson might grow into a better player, but the Texas guard is used to running the offense, and the 76ers have plenty of guys who can do that.
Without naming any names, Morey said the team was “seriously considering” six prospects, then four until Edgecombe rose to the top in the last few days. “As we dug in, we felt like VJ was by far the best choice there,” Morey said.
Morey said he didn’t put any stock in Edgecombe’s performance at a workout where he was reportedly nervous. He did glean plenty from the chance to meet Edgecombe and have dinner with him. (In the same vein, Morey said that Bailey declining to work out for teams didn’t much factor into their decisions.)
The quandary for the Sixers Wednesday centered on the timeline for contention. The club bet big last summer on established, aged free agents like Paul George, Eric Gordon and the return of Andre Drummond. It didn’t work, to put it lightly, with a 24-58 record, 29 different players used and general disarray.
By last February’s trade deadline, the club maximized cap flexibility. The stated goal in the end-of-season media availability was to get younger, more athletic and more dynamic. The draft lottery luck to keep their pick – a top-six protected selection that otherwise would’ve conveyed to Oklahoma City for the 2020 Al Horford deal – went a long way toward that, especially since the Sixers lack a pick in 2026.
All of that presumes that Embiid can once again be healthy and compete at an MVP level. If he can’t, the 76ers don’t have to reset to zero, since they have Maxey and McCain plus Edgecombe as valuable pieces to build around.
The pick Wednesday night would have to be both a hedge and a double-down on that risk. Thanks to the slew of Achilles’ tendon tears, the Eastern Conference is suddenly wide open. Next season will proceed without Tyrese Haliburton, without Damian Lillard, without Jayson Tatum on a fire-selling Celtics. The path to a final is a lot more open on July 1 than it was on April 1.
Edgecombe is a player that can straddle that divide. If Embiid has one more MVP-type season and if George has another All-Star-caliber campaign, Edgecombe can be a complement. If they don’t, he can be groomed into a future star.
It’s a fine line that the 76ers managed to walk Wednesday night.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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