What We've Learned About VJ Edgecombe in Tyrese Maxey's Absence

The Sixers are through two games with rookie VJ Edgecombe taking the reins in the wake of Tyrese Maxey's finger injury.

They have a comeback win over the lowly Memphis Grizzlies and a blowout loss to the Detroit Pistons under their belt. The primary ballhandler role has not been one that Edgecombe has experienced much in his rookie campaign. But it's one he's had to embrace quickly with Maxey shelved for the next three weeks.

What skills has he shown? Which edges have been rough? Where does he need to grow the most as a pillar of the Sixers' future?

Edgecombe's skills

If there had been a more robust sample size of Edgecombe commandeering the offense as a rookie, I think we'd have a lot of film of him leveraging his athleticism with the ball in the open floor. He sees gaps in the defense and has the length to avoid traffic with sweeping moves as he approaches the rim.

His body control has been one of the hallmarks of his rookie season. Usually, that implies contact at the rim. But it can apply to shedding defenders off the bounce and maintaining balance for shots away from the rim. The best example of that came in the win over the Grizzlies. Edgecombe shed a defender in the paint with his off arm before rising into a mid-range jumper. Of course, he is not a superstar yet. Only superstars get to do that. It was an offensive foul.

But Maxey was a straight-line player as a rookie. Most of his scoring as a first-year guard came via attacking downhill, punishing defenders who played him below the arc or getting into the paint for floaters and layups. He did not have the size or strength to play side-to-side the way that Edgecombe can already.

He has the height and the wingspan to shoot over defenders scaling across positions. The strength to physically manufacture space is something that will serve him as he gains stature in this league.

Edgecombe's areas of improvement

It was obvious before Maxey went down and has only been in the spotlight over these last two games, but the ballhandling has quite a ways to go. His dribbling is not advanced. It is very easy for defenders to knock the ball away or get him to pick up the ball. Edgecombe also hasn't demonstrated much strength with the ball. He gets stripped on drives frequently, either losing the ball into the defense's hands or kicking it out of bounds as he approaches the rim.

Another area to improve is decison-making with the ball. That doesn't necessarily mean making more careful passes or choosing safer shots. That means surveying the court and realizing when calling your own number is amongst the best options the lineup on the floor has.

For instance, Edgecombe had Isaiah Stewart in space in the second half of Thursday's loss to the Pistons. Perhaps that's a matchup he takes confidently after a summer in the weight room. It's possible that Stewart could wall him off and stop a drive. But a 6-foot-4 guard with Edgecombe's athletic gifts against a backup center. That is a situation that a lead ballhandler should prey on. Maybe it doesn't yield Edgecombe his own shot, but cracking the paint will force rotatiosn and create a shot for someone else.

The part that is unknown is whether Edgecombe declined the isolation because he was simply following instructions from the sideline and playing within the flow of the offense or because he didn't trust that he could win that battle.

The final notable pain point is changing speeds at the rim. Edgecombe has struggled quite a bit at the rim as a rookie, which is not all that surprising given that it was a sore spot in his lone collegiate season. But he has not helped himself as a driver in these first two games. A big part of the problem has been his tendency to approach the rim at full speed. Regardless of the traffic, Edgecombe hasn't found the ability to intuitively shift from one pace to another, slowing down as he approaches the basket so that the momentum doesn't cause the layup to miss long.

Edgecombe's biggest focus going forward

With Maxey out for the foreseeable future, Edgecombe will have to find an equilibrum playing side to side, knowing when he can be physically aggressive to create space in the mid-range for shots over defenders. He'll also have to get comfortable with using his size for passes in short windows. Edgecombe needs to leverage that he has the height to see passes Maxey cannot, punishing bigger foes as they shift toward him in the paint.

In the long run, a leap as a dribbler would change Philadelphia's world. Not only would it put the ball in the hands of the more effective of the Sixers' two theoretical point guards, but it would weaponize Maxey off the ball. Using his gravity as an off-ball shooter is something the Sixers have gotten away from in recent seasons, not that they've had much of an option since James Harden's departure.

None of this is meant to be a critique of Maxey, either. The reality is that there are so few real point guards left in the modern game that it doesn't really matter whether he has the playmaking chops to be that primary ballhandler. It has more to do with matching up skills with position.

The good news for Philadelphia is that there should be no question about how well they fit together in the long run. The defensive conmbination is hand-in-glove. Much more than it would've been if the backcourt was, say, Maxey and Jared McCain. Their offensive skills will take some time to sort out. Rome wasn't built in a day.