March 15, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Justin Edwards has a ardent supporter behind him in Sixers head coach Nick Nurse.
PHILADELPHIA – Justin Edwards begins every workout the exact same way. While most stretch and warm up their body before getting to work, Edwards always walks onto the court and attempts a three-point shot. Only then does the work on his body begin.
Edwards had an unusual rookie season. In what felt like an instant, he went from an undrafted two-way wing who only played in garbage time to a full-time starter on a team which had thrown in the towel on competing. Edwards logged 1,155 minutes for his hometown team in his first NBA season, and by the end of it he was used to logging heavy minutes every night and getting plenty of touches.
The 2025-26 season has presented Edwards with a harsh reality: his rookie year may be the highest-usage campaign of his career. Edwards has only started in seven of his 50 appearances as a sophomore. Many of his appearances have come in the spur of the moment; Edwards has often not been part of head coach Nick Nurse's regular rotation, but Nurse has enough faith in the 22-year-old to throw him out there at a moment's notice. The sporadic and sudden usage sparked Edwards' new workout routine.
"That's something that I work on," Edwards said on Jan. 27. "Before all my workouts start, no stretch, no warmup, I shoot a three... Now [when] I'm in the game, I never really get time to stretch because I'll be sitting for some time. That's something that I take pride in: just being able to make that first shot, which gives my teammates confidence to continue to pass me the ball."
In this week's Sunday stats, diving into Edwards' impressive early-stint success and his recent surge with the Sixers in need of more sources of quality minutes.
Justin Edwards' three-point percentage on first shots of rotation appearances this season.
To be clear about the criteria, since this is quite a specific categorization of one's shot attempts: Edwards is a 14-for-26 shooter this season when he is part of Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's rotation and takes a three-pointer on his first shot of the game. Edwards is a 30.0 percent three-point shooter this season if removing this piece of the sample; on the year he is right below 35 percent.
Edwards' opening shot attempts often feel like they have considerably more conviction behind them than many of his more timid tries throughout the year. Edwards had free rein to mostly do as he pleased with the ball in his hands last year, and it has been evident that adjusting back to normalcy on a team trying to win every game has been a challenge. But Edwards has told himself that he has to be ready to fire away right away. That mentality has paid dividends. Edwards is 8-for-12 on his last dozen opening shot attempts from any distance, with 14 opening triples to his name:
On 14 different occasions this season, Justin Edwards has been in the Sixers' rotation and made a three-pointer on his first shot attempt of a game: pic.twitter.com/Pk3S2V2ApL
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 14, 2026
Perhaps the biggest thing going for Edwards as he arrives at a new opportunity to leave a mark for the Sixers: Nurse remains a steadfast believer in what he brings to the table. It has been evident since Edwards' first NBA preseason that Nurse sees a vision with him. He only grew more excited about Edwards' prospects as last season went on, and as Edwards has been shuffled in and out of the rotation, Nurse has reaffirmed publicly and privately that he believes in Edwards. And three-point shooting is at the center of Nurse's belief.
"You guys know how much I like Justin," Nurse said on Saturday morning. "I think he's going to be a really great catch-and-shoot player at some point. It's just the mechanics and the work ethic and the confidence and the ball finding him – there's a lot of things that add up to that. And he just needs to work through some of this other stuff, and he's super, super young."
Immediately after Nurse's comments came one of Edwards' best games of the season – despite him missing all three of his long-range attempts.
Justin Edwards' scoring total in the Sixers' win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday afternoon, during which he shot 9-for-10 inside the arc and 0-for-3 from three-point territory.
Edwards has always at least been on the periphery of the rotation this season, but for a very long stretch he has not been entrusted with any sort of extended minutes. But he is now the team's only available wing signed to a standard contract, with Paul George suspended and Kelly Oubre Jr. sidelined due to an elbow injury. Nurse's experiments with Trendon Watford playing alongside two other bigs have mostly failed. Now, there is no choice but to hope Edwards can find his rookie form again. And the quality of his minutes has unquestionably improved lately. Is it simply the product of more consistent run?
"Yeah, I would say that," Edwards said after Saturday's game. "But I can't think of it like that. Guys are down, so I've got a bigger role on the team. I'm just trying to take advantage of the opportunity right now."
So far, so good for Edwards, whose defensive production has improved – Nurse has often talked about wanting Edwards to be more "solid" there and making fewer ill-advised gambles – in addition to some signs of life offensively.
One of the better sequences of Justin Edwards' sophomore season: pic.twitter.com/KHKTJ7MtV8
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 13, 2026
Edwards is shooting threes with clear confidence again and finding more chances to reach into his bag of mid-range jumpers. All of his damage on Saturday came inside the arc:
Justin Edwards scored 19 points and shot 9-10 on two-point attempts in the Sixers' win over Brooklyn on Saturday: pic.twitter.com/kC4BKyzmyo
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 14, 2026
The overarching sentiment from Edwards' teammates: he is always better off when he is aggressive, not timid.
"An aggressive Justin is a great Justin for us," Quentin Grimes said after scoring a game-high 28 points against Brooklyn. "And I feel like every time he's not thinking about the game, he just goes out there and plays the game at his rhythm and tries to get a look at the basket – he might pull up, he might shoot a three. So I feel like whenever Justin is in attack mode, he's aggressive, it kind of helps all of us out there, really."
VJ Edgecombe expressed a similar sentiment:
"I know he's very skilled. The whole team knows he's skilled."
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) March 14, 2026
VJ Edgecombe showing love to Justin Edwards. | @FultonBank pic.twitter.com/otzhCruh6r
Adem Bona, Edwards' lone remaining draft classmate since the departure of Jared McCain, commended Edwards for the way he has handled his fluctuating role after having such a steady workload down the stretch of last season. Bona and Edwards lead a group of Sixers youngsters that travels down the hallway to chapel an hour before every game. The players are typically asked what they are praying for that day.
"He says 'patience.' I think that he has embodied that," Bona said. "Dealing with the ups and downs from the whole year, he's been patient, whenever the time comes, he goes out there, he does what he does best, helps the team do what it needs to do. I would say he embodies being patient."
