Jay Bilas drops mind blowing 76ers' V.J. Edgecombe over Dwyane Wade take
The post Jay Bilas drops mind blowing 76ers' V.J. Edgecombe over Dwyane Wade take appeared first on ClutchPoints.
The Philadelphia 76ers got their guy with the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft, selecting V.J. Edgecombe out of Baylor. Edgecombe is an explosive shooting guard who can make plays on both sides of the ball, and many people have already started the comparisons for him.
Advertisement
ESPN's Jay Bilas had a few comparisons for Edgecombe, one of which included a current Hall of Famer.
'You know he's 19 years old, he's from the Bahamas. And on the player comp side, I'm saying he reminds me of Victor Oladipo when he was 19 and Dwyane Wade when he was 19,' Bilas said on the Pat McAfee Show. 'I'm not saying he's the Miami Heat Dwyane Wade yet, but at 19, you couldn't tell these two guys apart, you might even take Edgecombe. Because I think Edgecombe at 19 is probably better than Dwyane Wade was at 19.'
It's obvious that Bilas has high expectations for Edgecombe, and saying that he may have been better coming out of the college than Wade is huge. He may not have the same impact on the 76ers in his first year than Wade did with the Heat, but there is a chance for him to grow into something special.
76ers excited to add V.J. Edgecombe to the team
After adding Edgecombe to the team, general manager Daryl Morey seemed excited about the pick.
Advertisement
'We're super excited about V.J. and that we got the chance to draft him,' Morey said via The Athletic's Tony Jones. 'He's a dynamic athlete. We think he's one of the best athletes in the draft. We think he has a chance to be a potential All-Star, and he's going to be a two-way player coming into the league. He has a lot of winning qualities, and we think he is going to be a really good fit. We think he is going to be a great teammate.'
The 76ers already have a veteran team that is ready to win now, and they are led by Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George. Adding Edgecombe to the fold will be big for them, and he can be a key piece in the present and the future. His ceiling is high, and there's a chance he could make an impact on Day 1 for the 76ers.
Related: 76ers rookie VJ Edgecombe's emotional 'no electricity' revelation during draft reaction
Related: Live 2025 NBA Draft grades for every 1st-round pick, trade
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
39 minutes ago
- USA Today
Former Tennessee forward to play in NBA Summer League
Former Tennessee basketball forward Igor Mililic Jr. will play in Salt Lake City Summer League and the NBA Summer League. He signed with Philadelphia following the NBA draft. The Salt Lake City Summer League will take place July 5-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah and the NBA Summer League is slated for July 10-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Milicic Jr. played for the Vols during after the 2024-25 season after transferring from Charlotte and Virginia. In his one season at Tennessee, Milicic Jr. appeared in 37 games, including 37 starts. He is tied for fourth in most starts in program history. The former Vol averaged 9.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, while playing 25.4 minutes per contest. He was the Vols' leading rebounder and defensive rebounder (4.8 per game). Milicic Jr. recorded a .472 field goal percentage, .315 three-point field goal percentage and a .735 free throw percentage. Mililic Jr. recorded four double-doubles and was fourth for Tennessee in made field goals (125). Follow Vols Wire on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Boston Celtics jersey history No. 23 - Ernie Barrett (1953-56)
The Boston Celtics have had players suiting up in a total of 68 different jersey numbers (and have three others not part of any numerical series) since their founding at the dawn of the Basketball Association of America (BAA -- the league that would become today's NBA), worn by well over 500 players in the course of Celtics history. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Celtics Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. With 25 of those jerseys now retired to honor some of the greatest Celtics to wear those jerseys, there is a lot of history to cover. And for today's article, we will continue with the second of three people to wear the No. 23, Boston guard alum Ernie Barrett. After ending his college career at Kansas State, Barrett was picked up with the seventh overall selection of the 1951 NBA draft by the Celtics. The Pratt, Kansas native would play the only two seasons of his NBA career with Boston, retiring from the league afterward. During his time suiting up for the Celtics, Barrett wore only jersey No. 23 and put up 4.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How the NBA collective bargaining agreement is helping programs like Wisconsin
The Utah Jazz selected Wisconsin basketball wing John Tonje No. 53 overall in the 2025 NBA draft on Thursday. He joins Rutgers forward Ace Bailey and Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. as the team's three draftees. If the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement, signed in 2023, hadn't existed, there's a decent chance Tonje would've gone undrafted. Here's why. In 2023, the NBA Players Association and the league agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement, which featured a brand new and impactful rule: the second apron. This new rule was designed to help combat the rising trend of 'superteams,' with the most successful example being the Golden State Warriors, who won titles with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson all on one team. Advertisement The old CBA had a much softer salary cap than the new agreement, meaning that teams could go over the cap while only having to pay a small luxury tax as a penalty. That is different than other leagues, including the NFL, which has a hard salary cap and severe penalties for exceeding it. The new bargaining agreement and the 'second apron' rule aimed to limit the amount of money that franchises could spend on team-building. Some of those penalties include significant fines, teams not being able to trade first-round picks from seven years out and teams not being able to use cash in trades. Those are in addition to the numerous first-apron penalties as well. This idea sounds positive. However, it is having major consequences on the league. For example, many teams are so scared of exceeding the second apron that they are being forced to trade key rotation pieces or stars on their roster. The Boston Celtics were forced to trade both Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, two key members of their 2024 championship team. This past Tuesday, Nuggets general manager Josh Kroenke floated the idea of trading multiple-time MVP Nikola Jokic if the team come too close to exceeding the second apron. Instead of stopping teams from overspending, it is having an inverse effect which is causing NBA franchises to penny pinch. The reason why this affects college stars like John Tonje is that NBA franchises are in dire need of inexpensive, pro-ready rotational players that can fill the gaps that were previously filled by expensive role players. Teams can only afford a couple of high-profile players before they exceed the second apron, so many NBA franchises are filling the gaps with collegiate stars like John Tonje, players who can come in and fill a bench role for a few years before reaching free agency. We've seen this trend with many different teams in the NBA including the Los Angeles Lakers, who drafted 23-year old Dalton Knecht in the first round last year, or the Memphis Grizzlies, who drafted Zach Edey with the ninth overall pick. Advertisement Players like John Tonje who played well in March Madness and have NBA tools are being giving more chances by franchises that are tiptoeing close to the second apron and are in need of cheap, low-risk and high-reward players. While there were a record number of freshman drafted in the 2025 NBA Draft, there was also a high number of senior and super seniors drafted, including Nique Clifford, Walter Clayton Jr, Johni Broome, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Chaz Lanier, Koby Brea, and Brooks Barnhizer. Very few of these players would've been drafted just a couple of years ago and even fewer would've been drafted in the first round like Clifford and Clayton. This shift will be a positive one for college basketball programs like the Wisconsin Badgers, who tend to produce a ton of upperclassmen NBA talent. Next year, it is possible that both juniors John Blackwell and Nolan Winter enter the NBA draft process and eventually get drafted. The second apron might not be the most beneficial to the leagues' franchises, but it will definitely benefit players like Tonje and programs like Wisconsin who thrive on collegiate development. Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Why NBA CBA helps programs like Wisconsin, players like John Tonje
