Two Guards Will Control the Fate of the Sixers' Season

The Sixers have talked about championing the 'next man up' mentality all season long.

Talk is cheap. They embodied that character with spirit early in the season. They've been without a paddle for several weeks now, even with Tyrese Maxey playing.

Maxey is now sidelined for at least the next two games with a sprained right fifth finger. The Sixers say he will undergo additional testing and consultation in the coming days to determine a treatment plan.

Philadelphia will go into Cleveland without Maxey, Joel Embiid (strained right oblique) and Paul George (suspension).

The Sixers' fate may very well be sealed, their playoff hopes perhaps shackeled to the Play-In tournament.

Rookie VJ Edgecombe is listed as 'questionable' to return from a lumbar contusion sustained in the team's loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.

Let's not kid ourselves—this very well may be a massive dagger in Philadelphia's hopes of avoiding the Play-In tournament.

But if there's any chance of the Sixers pulling a win or two out over the next seven days, it will have to start with Philadelphia putting the ball in Edgecombe's hands.

Why should you have any belief in that?

I think back to some of the comments made when talking to Edgecombe's previous coaches for a profile done back in January.

Edgecombe's AAU coach, Anthony Ricks, put the ball in his hands when Mikel Brown, now a projected lottery pick in the 2026 draft, missed time with an injury.

"Most of that year, he played point guard for me. We ran everything through him," Ricks told On SI during a phone interview.

Ricks was under no illusions. He runs a competitive, high-level program. He's seen pros and high-level college players come and go. But he knows it's not exactly the NBA.

"But you could see him standing out and then a little different than everybody else. He played on the ball, that's what a lot of the guys that recruited him saw him as. On-the-ball guard that could play off the ball and make plays, too," Ricks said.

Ricks then pointed to Edgecombe's time at Baylor, where he was not deployed as a point guard very much. Edgecombe played with two smaller guards, Rob Wright and Jaden Nunn. Sometimes there would be four guards in the game with him, Jeremy Roach added to the mix.

Edgecombe's lack of use as a point guard in college had nothing to do with coachs not seeing the ability he had, Ricks thinks.

"I think they knew what he was, too. But just their roster didn't always allow them to play him kind of like right now with the Sixers. He's either the point or the shooting guard. It's not a third-guard type of scenario," Ricks said.

"I didn't realize he was as good a facilitator and point guard as he was when he got to us."

Edgecombe's head coach at Baylor ostensibly agrees with Ricks.

"I didn't realize he was as good a facilitator and point guard as he was when he got to us. We were impressed with his ability to run a team," Scott Drew told On SI.

Drew saw the NBA as a league that would accentuate Edgecombe's skills because the defenses he saw in his one year at Baylor are illegal in the NBA.

"He's driving now and he sees the rim. So it actually allows the game to be easier. It allows your reads to be easier. I mean, the different things you face in college, from different presses to different zones to double-teams to gimmick defenses. You have to mess with all of that stuff in college," Drew said.

In that way, Drew sees a lot of Keyonte George in Edgecombe.

"Both of them had ability to really pass the ball that in high school they didn't necessarily play point guard for their team. And they were able to showcase some of that ability in college. But when they got to the NBA, it's even gone to another level, as far as their assist-to-turnover ratio and their ability to do such."

Edgecombe does not have the ballhanding skills or scoring chops that Maxey has. Maxey doesn't have the court vision and athleticism that Edgecombe has.

He's only a rookie. The task in front of Edgecombe, however long Maxey is sidelined, is going to be daunting.

But those who have invested the most in Edgecombe believe there's a lead ballhandler lying in wait.

Nick Nurse has invested 583 possessions in Edgecombe as a point guard this season, per Cleaning The Glass (CTG). 540 of those have featured Quentin Grimes as the shooting guard.

CTG estimates that Grimes has played 26 possessions of point guard this season.

Grimes will elevate in the pecking order, ostensibly staying in the starting lineup with Edgecombe running point.

Grimes has had a wildly helter skelter season as the featured player off the Sixers' bench. On one hand, you could very well believe that he's the player he's shown to be most of this season—consistently inconsistent.

But last season's audition introduced the possibility that perhaps Grimes, with more opportunity with the ball in his hands, can sustain torrid scoring for a stretch without Maxey. Then again, context matters. He did it in an environment where his value as a restricted free agent was the only thing at stake. The Sixers are wrestling with expectations now. There is pressure on him.

Which guy is he?

Whichever player he proves to be, Edgecombe will get the lion's share of the opportunity in Maxey's absence.

Nurse has had an uneven third season in Philadelphia. One thing Ricks believes Nurse should be credited for is helping Edgecombe be the best player he can be as a rookie.

“Nurse has believed in him from the beginning as being an elite playmaking guard. Nurse has always, from the jump, from his interview, from the first time he ever went to the press conference, he said, 'I'm going to put the ball in his hands and he's going to be a playmaker for us'. He's lived by that," Ricks said.

And now the Sixers may live or die by it, too.