The optimism was cautious, but the reviews were rave in preseason.
VJ Edgecombe had inspired plenty of hope throughout his first few months as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, for what he did on the basketball court and how he approached his work there.
But to have the third-highest-scoring debut in NBA history?
“That’s pretty good,” Nick Nurse said Wednesday night, after getting clarity on whether he was third in team or league history.
Edgecombe’s 34 points in a 117-116 win at Boston was the third-most for a rookie making his NBA debut, the most since a guy named Wilt Chamberlain in 1959.
So without revving the hype train completely off the rails, the returns from his first game in the NBA are, to say the least, positive.
“It’s certainly a great start, but you just know there’s tons of room, different things he needs to do,” Nurse said. “I’d like to see him be a little more aggressive in the open floor. He’s definitely got that in his game. I think he could take it to some spots inside the 3-point line and vault up and score. We saw a couple of those that he missed. But that’s an amazing first-game performance. It really is.”
Edgecombe has been an understated reason for hope that this year will be much different than the 24-win slog that the 76ers suffered through and for which Edgecombe was the No. 3 overall pick was the reward. Joel Embiid’s health is a big reason, as is the general team-wide fitness that eluded them all season in 2024-25, as is the extra time to meld Paul George and others into the roster.
Edgecombe’s upside, as long as it was limited to the preseason and Summer League, was always going to come with caveats. But fueling a double-digit comeback in Boston on opening night after scoring 14 points in his first quarter as an NBA player … that’s concrete evidence that the 20-year-old is special.
“I prayed for this,” Edgecombe said. “I always prayed to make it to the NBA and to stay in the NBA. Man, yeah, that was crazy. That surpassed my expectation, to be honest.”
Edgecombe was outstanding in his debut. He tallied his points on 13-for-26 shooting, including 5-for-13 from 3-point range. He added seven rebounds, three assists and just two turnovers in a team-high 42 minutes. He was only minus-2 on the night, but he was on the court for a decisive run in the fourth quarter in which the 76ers took the lead for good.
That production came in a variety of situations. He looked comfortable bringing the ball up the court, a role he’ll have to play more until Jared McCain comes back. He was dangerous off the ball, in catch-and-shoot from behind the arc and driving situations. He got to the basket and competed defensively, which you knew would be the case going. And he did it with guys like Derrick White and Anfernee Simons, hardly pushovers, defending him.
“He played really well,” said Tyrese Maxey, who scored a game-high 40 points. “He was really comfortable. He was really confident. Extremely confident.”
Teammates had attested to that promise throughout the preseason.
Edgecombe made an instant impression with his curiosity, willingness to ask questions and ability to assimilate new information. He would have to adapt to the NBA, but his starting point as sufficiently high that the 76ers would have to adapt to let it shine.
The statistical bona fides that made him a lottery pick were clear: the wingspan, the athleticism, the ability to generate offense. The mindset and basketball IQ stringing it all together shone brighter on closer inspection.
“It’s almost every single day you see something from his athleticism, where you’re like, wow, how did he get from here to there, there to there, whatever it is,” Nurse had said on Tuesday. “And a lot of it shows up in darting in a passing lane looks like he’s behind on a handoff and all of a sudden he’s blasting through the screen, blocked shot, big offensive rebound. You see in a lot of ways. He does a lot of things.”
Promising as Edgecombe looked, you figured it might take time to integrate that into a cohesive, 48-minute strategy. It did not.
He did it against a Celtics team that even without the injured Jayson Tatum remain formidable. He did it on a day when Embiid struggled, shooting 1-for-9 from the field in 20 minutes and spending the decisive stretch on the bench, with young Dominick Barlow better adapted for the way the 76ers wanted to play in the moment.
Edgecombe’s day wasn’t perfect. He made two free throws in a one-point game with 14.1 seconds left, though he missed two in the same situation with 8.5 left, setting up the Celtics to miss two chances to win the game.
But the first thing the 76ers would’ve wanted to see from Edgecombe was if he looked out of place in a big moment. He very much did not.
“He certainly looked pretty comfortable out there,” Nurse said. “That’s one thing that I’ve noticed the most from him. He seems to really know what’s going on out there for a young player. You just don’t see him making silly mistakes or many mistakes. He’s playing the right way and has a great feel for the game.”
Source: Berkshire mont