VJ Edgecombe is the Sixers’ main source of hope for the future

A lot of Sixers fans are stung enough by their humiliating loss to the Knicks to wonder if the 11 playoff games the team appeared in were worth the time, money, and effort spent on their basketball team. The images of New Yorkers invading the arena, local television shots, and driving the Sixers off the floor are tough to take, even before we get to Josh Hart’s attempt to take Philadelphia’s sports town cred away.

The reason this humiliation ritual may well have been worth it was seen in the dying embers of Game 3, in the pained expressions from VJ Edgecombe on Philadelphia’s bench. Their star rookie had achieved almost everything one could in year one in the NBA, but he had to deal with his first taste of bitter reality in the pros, listening to the visitors drown out the locals in his adopted home. This was, if nothing else, a proving ground for a young man who learned a lot about what the next step will take from two rounds of playoff hoops.

“Playing against the Celtics to now against New York, it was tricky. I was guarded differently,” Edgecombe said on Sunday. “I’m gonna take some time, look back at it after a couple of weeks or so.”

“I refuse for, coming into next year, a team won’t ever leave me open. Even during the regular season, I was shooting the ball pretty well, and the playoffs come, and it’s just a different vibe, you know? Intensity’s higher, closeouts are a lot quicker, but I’m going to go in, and I’m gonna work. I’m gonna work. I’m gonna work. I’m going to do whatever I got to do to get better, make life easier for [Tyrese Maxey] and the rest of my teammates, take some of the pressure off some of the load offensively off of them.”

Jumpshooting improvement sure seems like a great place for the rookie to start. Edgecombe ended his playoff run shooting just 29.2 percent from three, with a couple of standout efforts in the Celtics series otherwise surrounded by pain and suffering as a jumpshooter. The coverages may have been different, but the desire to dare Edgecombe was true for both playoff opponents. His regular-season numbers were better, but only around average efficiency. It was a season of contrast — Edgecombe may be the best and most willing shooter I’ve ever seen regularly airball first-half threes before making all his crunch-time jumpers.

His stated desire to better himself for the sake of others as much as himself is part of the growing story of this young man, who has made friends and admirers out of most people he’s come across in the basketball world. Dating back to last offseason, head coach Nick Nurse told reporters that the most important benchmark for Edgecombe was how many minutes he could pile up as a rookie. He would eventually log around 3000 total minutes before his year came to a close, ranking 11th in minutes played for the entire league.

That time on the floor was earned, not given. Teammates began to admire him almost immediately after he arrived in the gym last year, joining workout warriors like Tyrese Maxey at 6 a.m. in the dead of August to get ready for the season ahead. Joel Embiid, who watched Maxey ascend from bench player to superstar and turned himself into an MVP during unseen offseason hours, is as bullish on Edgecombe as I can remember him being about a young player.

“VJ is up next,” Embiid said after Game 4. “Philly got a good one in him, he’s the guy. I think, I’m telling you guys, that guy is something different. And this was only year one, and this was only year one, year two is gonna be better, year three, even better, but he has a chance to be extremely special.”

One reason Embiid might be onto something can be seen in the details of Edgecombe’s playoff performance. After struggling to finish around the basket for much of the season, too overzealous to launch into opposing defenders, Edgecombe shot over 70 percent in the restricted area during the playoffs, picking his spots well and nearly always capitalizing on openings on the break and in the halfcourt. His midrange game also took a dramatic leap late in the regular season, with Edgecombe improving at getting to his spots and punishing sagging defenses thanks to the tutelage of veteran wing Paul George. After the All-Star break, Edgecombe knocked down a staggering 62.7 percent of his mid-range shots, per NBA tracking data, the second-best mark in the league among players taking at least two per game. While that exact number is unsustainable — it was nearly five percent better than likely MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s mark during that period — it is a sign of his ability to improve and adapt as time wears on.

Naturally, Edgecombe responded like a multi-year vet to Embiid’s proclamation: “It’s great, but the work has to be put in. I have to continue putting in the work. I really love my teammates, I really love all the things they say about me. But I got to keep putting in the work and keep getting better, so whatever they say can come to pass.”

If you’re dreaming of what the final version of Edgecombe might look like, you need only look to how his backcourt mate views the path forward. Tyrese Maxey sputtered through the end of Sixers-Knicks, with his hand injury only telling part of the story. New York constantly flooded the zone against Maxey, forcing the ball out of his hands with pressure and traps, denying him the opportunity to run the offense and get things rolling.

A world where Maxey gets to play off-ball a bit more? It’s what Maxey says he is trying to prepare for over the offseason, while hoping that Edgecombe’s continued focus on on-ball scoring and playmaking can justify a shift in priorities.

“This series was definitely tough for me; they made it tough on me,” Maxey said. “I saw multiple bodies every single night, every single pick and roll, it was the trap. Every single Brunson action, it was a trap…[Edgecombe] being here and working on some of the things he just talked about is going to really help me as well. Next year, I’m going to do some things off the ball and just don’t have to be in front of the defense all the time. When you’re in front of the defense all the time, it gives them opportunities to trap me a lot, gives them opportunities to have the entire team kind of load up. And I feel like that’s one thing that really good players, and great players can do.”

“Drafting him was huge for myself, he took a lot of pressure off me this season, and he’s going to only get better.”

The only sad part about it is that Edgecombe’s continued ascent is the only reasonable path the Sixers have to meaningful improvement next season. Kelly Oubre and Quentin Grimes were both cautious while talking about free agency plans during exit interviews, and Philly is only likely to retain one unless they suddenly find themselves with an owner willing to go into next year with an expensive (and very similar!) team. With due respect to whoever the team picks at No. 22, they’re a lot more likely to draft a solid top-nine guy to add to the rotation than a needle mover who can become part of the vanguard alongside Edgecombe and Maxey. Unless we get an out-of-nowhere trade of Embiid or Paul George, the sort of deal that is unlikely to materialize in this financially restrictive CBA, the big money deals will continue to effectively freeze their books.

But as you watched Edgecombe continue to fight against the Knicks’ tidal wave in Game 4, soaring for rebounds and battling for positions that his teammates had been happy to concede, placing your eggs in his basket doesn’t seem half bad. Alongside Tyrese Maxey, soon to be minted an All-NBA player for the first time, the Sixers have the foundation for a productive and exciting backcourt for years into the future. And one of them is even willing to do the dirty work.

“Defensively, I’m gonna keep getting better, keep learning. For the rest of my career, I want to go out and say I can go guard whoever I have to go guard,” Edgecombe said. “I’m just excited to see how this offseason is gonna look for me, and next year I’m coming back better, stronger, faster, more athletic, whatever I gotta do.”