July 14, 2026
David Butler II/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
VJ Edgecombe and Jaylen Brown faced off in last year's playoffs. Now, they will be teammates.
Another day of waiting.
LeBron James still has not chosen his next team, which leaves the Sixers and a handful of other teams with nothing to do but hope their recruiting efforts pay off.
How would James joining the Sixers impact the current rotation? Can the Sixers' stunning trade for 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown have a negative impact on the team's young players?
It is time to answer those questions and more in our weekly Sixers mailbag:
From @DWalt37: Does the addition of Jaylen Brown stunt the growth of VJ Edgecombe and Labaron Philon Jr.?
This is a legitimate concern, particularly when it comes to Edgecombe (Philon may not even project as a rotation regular after the Sixers signed Anfernee Simons). In three years in Philadelphia, the most consequential decision Nick Nurse has made was to empower Edgecombe, then a 20-year-old rookie, to play as many minutes as possible and work through mistakes as an on-ball player.
Despite the fact that his NBA debut was historic – Edgecombe scored 34 points to power a comeback win over the Boston Celtics on opening night – it was evident by the end of the season just how much better Edgecombe was with the ball in his hands relative to his starting point. Edgecombe learned how to slow down, which helped him establish a reliable mid-range game and find better avenues to use his elite athleticism.
VJ Edgecombe scored 25 points on 10-21 in the Sixers' loss to Phoenix on Tuesday, including two threes, an early flurry of mid-range pull-ups and a pair of late buckets on the offensive glass.
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 21, 2026
All 10 of Edgecombe's made shots: pic.twitter.com/tKlyjc7kAE
Even with a team now possessing three elite scorers in Brown, Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid, it would be wise for the Sixers to keep the future in mind and find pockets of games to let Edgecombe run the show. But that is going to be harder with Brown, whose usage is not just significant but also singular in that he does very little creating for others.
Take a look at Brown's four most ball-dominant teammates in Boston last year, focusing on their usage and overall efficiency with Brown on and off the court:
| Teammate | USG% with Brown | USG% without Brown | TS% with Brown | TS% without Brown |
| Jayson Tatum | 25.8 | 36.2 | 57.6 | 50.0 |
| Derrick White | 18.9 | 28.1 | 55.2 | 50.0 |
| Payton Pritchard | 18.5 | 27.2 | 56.6 | 60.6 |
| Anfernee Simons | 18.5 | 28.0 | 57.6 | 58.0 |
Any time a high-usage player like Brown is on a team, their teammates will experience these significant dips in opportunity when sharing the floor with him. Why it is a greater concern here than in many other situations with similar statistical splits: Brown's massive usage generally does not lead to many quality looks for others. Even someone like Jayson Tatum – not considered a high-level playmaker for others – does a better job of getting others involved in the offense.
With four high-level players at his disposal, Nurse will certainly stagger his best players. When the Sixers are at full strength, expect to always see at least two of Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown and Embiid on the floor together. Nurse should experiment with every possible combination of those players throughout the season to identify optimal tandems ahead of the playoffs. Perhaps, for the sake of continuing to foster Edgecombe's on-ball development, the Sixers would be wise to split him and Brown up.
MORE: Revisiting our 10 predictions for 2025-26 Sixers season
From @gamingswagblog: Let’s say LeBron James comes. How do you see Dean Wade being utilized or do you see LeBron maybe limiting his minutes and Dean still being a strong contributor?
Wade has the most to lose on paper in a world in which James signs with the Sixers; he is currently lined up to be Nurse's fifth starter alongside the aforementioned four pillars but would certainly cede that spot to the NBA's all-time leading scorer.
Even if James does sign with the Sixers, a ranking of the most important members of the Sixers would likely still end up with Wade listed sixth. If any member of the Sixers' starting five with James in it needed a night off, Wade would be able to slide in and take their place (perhaps Embiid is the exception, but the Sixers could ask either of Wade or James to play some small-ball center).
Additionally, as your question mentions, James will not play a massive number of minutes over the course of the season. He will turn 42 years old around the midway point of the season. Playing at his age with his mileage will require significant load management, not just in terms of minutes per game but number of appearances. Wade would slide into James' starting spot on many occasions over the course of a season, and he would still be lined up as a long-term starter – assuming James only has a year or two left.
Speaking of Wade, after a source told PhillyVoice that his four-year contract starts at $9 million with annual raises of five percent – giving the deal a maximum value of $38.7 million, not the reported $39 million – SalarySwish reported that the partial guarantee in the fourth year of the deal is worth $1.65 million. That means Wade has locked in $30 million in guaranteed salary.
MORE: LeBron sweepstakes continue, loaded Eastern Conference and more
From @lukelyons.bsky.social: Now that Jaylen Brown is here, it feels like the Sixers need to finally take the backup center role seriously. With limited resources, what would your ideal solution look like?
It seems clear at this point that the Sixers' plan is to enter the season with Embiid, Adem Bona, Ariel Hukporti and Johni Broome as their centers.
Bona, whose third-year salary has officially been guaranteed, is one of the league's best shot-blockers on a per-minute basis. His athleticism and motor cannot be taught. But he makes too many mistakes and is not strong enough on the defensive glass. He is a viable NBA center, but has not proven to be capable of handling the responsibility that comes with the most important backup center job in the NBA.
That is why the Hukporti signing, at face value, is puzzling. Hukporti is like Bona in many respects: inexperienced, raw and prone to avoidable miscues. He has not played nearly as many minutes, coming off two seasons with the New York Knicks in which he was blocked by Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson. The Sixers clearly see something in Hukporti; his $3.4 million contract is well above his minimum salary and that cost the Sixers as far as their remaining spending power was concerned.
Ultimately, those two players figure to receive the bulk of the chances to back up Embiid early. But there are obvious downside scenarios on the table with both. Perhaps Broome can work his way into the picture, but he only played 55 minutes as a rookie and never factored into Nurse's rotation.
The group of Bona, Hukporti and Broome is imperfect. They are not the team's only options to play the five, though.
Wade has some experience sliding all the way up to that position. Dominick Barlow can do it, too, and Nurse leaned on that in the second round of the playoffs after failing to test it out enough during the regular season. Nurse should give Barlow real cracks at playing center next season, and Jabari Walker has more than enough strength to do it, too. Nurse should be creative in piecing together his 48 minutes at center.
JAYLEN BROWN FILM STUDIES
