LAS VEGAS — It was not as if VJ Edgecombe’s debut performance in Las Vegas Summer League on Tuesday night could have gotten any worse if he did not have his best in the second half. But Edgecombe, resilient and aggressive as ever, regrouped after an 0-for-7 shooting line prior to intermission against the Washington Wizards, took the Thomas & Mack Center floor and was the best player on it in the second half. He quarterbacked the Summer Sixers’ 74-58 win and displayed just a bit of the mental makeup that drew the Sixers to him.
Edgecombe, who had missed four consecutive games with a left thumb sprain he believes he suffered in the midst of a dominant professional debut in Salt Lake City, was understandably not himself early on. He fell victim to a pair of uncalled fouls, had a close miss at the rim and a few not-close-at-all misses on jumpers. It felt like nothing could go right for Edgecombe, and he returned to the locker room at halftime without any points to his name.
Early in the game, Edgecombe looked the part of an eager 20-year-old coming off a four-game absence trying to prove he was worthy of being the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. In the second half, he just looked like someone worthy of being the No. 3 overall pick in the draft. He did it by slowing down, using his special change-of-pace to manipulate defenders and playing freely.
“In the first half, I was trying to get my feet under me, but that ain’t no excuse. I just go out there and just play hard,” Edgecombe said. “Second half it slowed down, was able to make easier reads and more in the flow. It was good. We won, so that’s all that matters.”
Summer League results are almost completely meaningless. Neither Edgecombe’s brutal first half or his stellar second half should change the way anyone projects him as a player moving forward. The same should be said for his Salt Lake City debut. But, for whatever it is worth, this is the first opportunity for the Sixers to experience for themselves how Edgecombe handles and reacts to different in-game situations.
So, they saw how Edgecombe faces adversity in the form of a rough half. Instead of becoming passive after an aggressive mentality led to poor results, Edgecombe took his intensity up a notch. He had to assert his will on the game, and with every powerful drive or leaping rebound he got closer to doing just that.
“We need it as a team,” Summer Sixers head coach T.J. DiLeo said. “I think, in terms of the first half, it’s always hard coming back after sitting out a little bit, and he only played one game with us before that. So it’s like, ‘Shake off the rest a little bit. Get your confidence back.’ And I just told him to keep attacking the rim. Keep getting downhill attacking the rim. That’s what he does. He started getting some foul calls a little bit in the second half, and it’s always a good way to get going, get to the foul line, get a couple easy ones, and we need that from him.”
With a few pairs of free throws Edgecombe earned by taking explosive strides to the rim — and, mercifully, a dunk — there was finally a semblance of a groove. Eventually Edgecombe scored again… and again… and again. By the time the game ended, the Wizards were at his mercy. It would not have happened that way had he shied away after a difficult opening act.
Was it hard for Edgecombe to remain aggressive during that stretch? He nearly scoffed at the notion.
“It’s part of the game. You’re going to miss shots. I don’t think there has been anyone on earth that played basketball and has made every shot,” Edgecombe said. “So at the end of the day, I’ve just got to keep playing basketball. Take what they give me. Lane is there, attack the lane, make some plays, create for others. Do something. But I’m going to be myself the whole time.”
Thanks to that mindset, Edgecombe totaled 15 points in the second half while also making a point to seek out playmaking opportunities. He seemed particularly eager to talk about his passing.
“Yeah, they closed in on me,” Edgecombe said. “[There weren’t many] lanes when I got the ball. So my teammates, credit them for making themselves available. And I passed the ball.”
Ball-handling and playmaking are Edgecombe’s perceived key weaknesses. He will likely not be asked to do much of either on the 2025-26 Sixers, but developing in those departments will be critical for his chances of achieving the sort of long-term stardom many believe he is capable of reaching.
“It just comes down to reading the floor,” Edgecombe said. “If you can read the floor, just have pace and poise, [that’s] something I’ve been trying to get better at. You never can not be getting better at something. So that’s something I want to be getting better at.”
With the bigger picture in mind, DiLeo is picking his spots to emphasize it to Edgecombe.
“We talked about the last couple days and film sessions and practices,” DiLeo said. “We’re valuing assists right now. We’ve got to move the ball better, share the ball better. I thought we did that a little bit, and VJ did an awesome job of that… Sometimes I just pull him aside and say ‘You need to be on-ball now.’ Of course every time he rebounds, push it. But then he can set up the offense, keep it simple, play some pick-and-roll.”
Edgecombe has heard the noise about his suspect handle. He believes he has a lot more ability on that front than he gets credit for. But he is willing to acknowledge he has more work to do there.
“Still learning,” Edgecombe said when asked about his on-ball duties with the Summer Sixers. “I learn every day. When it comes to being point guard, lead guard, whatever you want to call it, I learn every day. So just keeping my head down, keep working, to be honest. Watch film, do what I have to do to get better.”
Part of the sell for picking Edgecombe at No. 3 was that his eventual developmental focuses would not be skills that the Sixers view as short-term needs. In fact, they believe Edgecombe’s present-day strengths are what their current roster needs more of. For example: Edgecombe possesses blazing end-to-end speed, explosive leaping ability and a knack for finding seams in transition defenses, a combination that should enable him to be a stellar transition scorer right away. Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George can use a teammate like that.
“It’s great. Especially [because] we have some other guys that’ll draw some attention, too, so there should be some gaps for him to do that,” DiLeo said. “And the quicker you can do it — he’s so fast downhill, so if he can get downhill in a couple dribbles, he’s at the rim before the defense can even react — so I think that’s big-time for him, and that’s something that will kind of carry over for him. He’ll be able to hang his hat on [that] a little bit.”
With all of that being said, it is worth repeating that over-indexing on the basketball side of one Summer League game is a fool’s errand. Edgecombe hanging in during a poor start and laboring until he could find a rhythm and take over the game is more important than any of the things he actually did during that takeover.
Scouts and experts spent the entire draft process raving about Edgecombe’s mental makeup, and the Sixers would not have made such a significant investment in him if their evaluation of his psyche did not jive with that consensus. Edgecombe will soon face tests much greater than a bad half of Summer League basketball. But every time Edgecombe charged at a seven-footer and tried to embarrass them with a poster slam, he was making it clear that he was unfazed.
“I don’t have no fear at all,” Edgecombe said.
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