July 21, 2026
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
VJ Edgecombe grew up in The Bahamas watching a whole lot of LeBron James on the Miami Heat.
Many people are excited about the possibility of LeBron James joining the Sixers. It is safe to say 21-year-old VJ Edgecombe is among them.
Edgecombe grew up in The Bahamas, where nearby Miami Heat games are frequently on television. The Heat were on a whole lot during Edgecombe's youth, when James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teamed up and brought two championships to Miami.
How, though, would adding Jaylen Brown and James in the same summer impact Edgecombe's growth after his marvelous rookie season?
In this week's Sixers mailbag, discussing the potential ramifications of James coming to Philadelphia for Edgecombe, plus where Brown should fall within the team's offensive hierarchy and more:
From @KINGFAZE23: If LeBron James goes to the Sixers, do you think there should be a conversation about moving VJ Edgecombe to the bench and bringing a 3&D-type player to replace him in the lineup so it doesn’t affect his growth and the fit is better? Him and Anfernee Simons can dominate the bench scoring.
I do not think this will be an option, particularly under Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, a strong advocate for playing Edgecombe as much as possible.
To be clear, the Sixers adding multiple high-volume ball-handlers in the same offseason would absolutely complicate Edgecombe's development, as last week's mailbag also focused on. For the sake of Edgecombe's growth, it would not be wise to move him to the bench. And, for the sake of the Sixers' chances of winning games, it would be especially imprudent. No other player on this roster is a better fit to start alongside Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Brown and James than Edgecombe, already a strong point-of-attack defender and a better three-point shooter than expected, also capable of benefitting from loads of transition scoring opportunities.
The Sixers should look for VJ Edgecombe on these transition lobs more often: pic.twitter.com/t30OxhL2pe
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) April 1, 2026
Ultimately, whether the Sixers sign James or not, the challenge for Nurse will be finding the right combinations and lineups to ensure his four or five high-usage players all have chances to be their best (whenever James signs with a team, be on the lookout for in-depth breakdown of Nurse's potential rotation plan).
The most consequential decision Nurse has made in three seasons in Philadelphia was empowering Edgecombe to play tons of minutes, with and without the ball, to spark rapid improvement. I would expect him to try to craft a rotation that at least occasionally allows Edgecombe to play with the ball in his hands.
What makes Edgecombe special as he enters his age-21 season, though, is that he can already be trusted to fill in the gaps in an additive fashion on both ends of the floor. That would be accentuated with someone like James, perhaps the best player of all time when it comes to making teammates better.
MORE: What should rest of Sixers free agency look like if LeBron doesn't sign?
From @zaydormus23: Do you think the offense should be built around Jaylen Brown? Not just because of his accolades, but because Nick Nurse won a championship with an offense built around Kawhi Leonard who has a similar play style to Brown?
I do not think Nurse's offense should be built around Brown in that I do not believe he is their best offensive player, or the one that can drive the best team offense. But the Sixers traded for Brown because he is one of the league's most reliable self-creators; while Brown does not make plays for others much he can also score in bunches without others spoon-feeding him.
If the Sixers can establish their spacing even close to as well as the Boston Celtics do, it will allow Jaylen Brown to thrive as a one-on-one scorer: pic.twitter.com/QPkb4H8zMF
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) July 4, 2026
The difference between Brown and Leonard – with all due respect to the Brown – is that the 2024 NBA Finals MVP is not the same caliber of player as the 2019 NBA Finals MVP. While Leonard has also never been much of a playmaker, he is considerably less prone to turnovers than Brown, and the gap in terms of overall efficiency as scorers is massive in favor of Leonard.
During his seven-year streak of averaging at least 20 points per game, Brown's usage rate has been 30.3 percent. In 2018-19, Leonard had a usage rate of 30.2 percent. Leonard is one of the few players in the NBA capable of scoring on his own as often as Brown does, but he has done it while posting vastly superior efficiency marks.
The Toronto Raptors did not win a championship because Nurse designed a system built around Leonard self-creating scoring chances. In addition to benefitting from a tremendous, well-rounded team, they won because Leonard blended volume and efficiency in a way that is nearly unparalleled.
Brown – likely nearly every other player in the history of the NBA – cannot play that game well enough for it to be a team's primary source of offense. He can keep an offense afloat for periods of a game, which is extremely valuable, and he can get a big bucket when the going gets tough late in games, which is also very important. But he is not the same level of self-creator as Leonard because he cannot do it at the same caliber efficiency-wise.
JAYLEN BROWN FILM STUDIES
From @ChrisBernucca: Why are the Sixers hanging on to Dalen Terry? It costs them nothing to waive him and there's plenty of better guards on the FA market.
The Sixers are not waiving Terry because it costs them nothing to have him on their roster right now. If the Sixers find a player they would rather have on their roster willing to sign for the veteran's minimum salary, they can waive Terry and sign that player.
Until there is a use for Terry's roster spot, a need to shed his non-guaranteed salary of just under $2.6 million or a trade his salary can help facilitate, the Sixers will not gain any advantage or optionality by waiving him.
If such an opportunity does not present itself, the Sixers can bring Terry into training camp and decide what to do from there. They could keep him around for camp and then waive him – his cap hit would remain nonexistent – or the Sixers could carry Terry on their roster into the season. His salary does not become guaranteed until Jan. 10; if he is waived before that point his cap hit will be prorated.
The organization clearly sees something in Terry, a four-year veteran swingman whose defensive tenacity is an NBA-level trait. Terry became popular in a new locker room very quickly down the stretch of the 2025-26 season and earned a standard deal when Cam Payne went down.
Two-way wing Dalen Terry gave the Sixers an important lift in his first high-leverage minutes with the team in Tuesday's win over Memphis. He was picking up Grizzlies ball-handlers full court and was a +23 in 22 minutes: pic.twitter.com/Z4DUothewF
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 12, 2026
Terry has a lot to prove before anyone feels comfortable with him holding down a full-season roster spot, but I would not be shocked to see him on this roster when the 2026-27 campaign gets underway.
MORE: Revisiting PhillyVoice's 10 predictions for 2025-26 Sixers season
