Now that the 2025-26 Sixers season is complete after a thrilling first-round series comeback and a jarring second-round sweep, it is time to reflect on the year that was.

Welcome to Sixers year-in-review, where each player's campaign will be analyzed with a combination of statistics, film and reporting.

Up next: VJ Edgecombe, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft who shattered lofty expectations as a 20-year-old rookie, serving as a positive-impact starter on both ends of the floor from opening night of the regular season through the end of the playoffs.

Edgecombe cemented himself as a legitimate building block in his first NBA season, one of two players the Sixers can confidently say they are constructing their team around for many years to come. How did he do it, and what is next for him?

SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW

Joel Embiid | Tyrese Maxey | Paul George | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes | VJ Edgecombe

What we learned in 2025-26

Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey make up arguably the most promising long-term backcourt pairing in the entire NBA.

For the foreseeable future, Maxey and Edgecombe's careers and skills must be discussed in tandem. They are intertwined. An excerpt from Maxey's year-in-review last week:

"The partnership Maxey shared with VJ Edgecombe, on and off the court, was the stabilizing factor that allowed the 20-year-old rookie to be his best self right off the bat. Because Maxey was so terrific all season and only had one prolonged absence late in the season, the Sixers were able to empower Edgecombe as an offensive player without ever putting too much on his plate. Maxey's presence was like a pair of training wheels for Edgecombe, who took full advantage and made massive gains in his game from October to May.

And while the on-court fit of Maxey and Edgecombe is as clean as it gets – Maxey can take on the lead ball-handling duties but slide into an off-ball role when Edgecombe is in a groove; Edgecombe can handle the primary defensive assignment at either guard spot and Maxey can be optimized as an off-ball playmaker; both players can pass, shoot and dribble and neither is a weak link defensively – the bond that the Sixers' two guards have cultivated off the court is just as meaningful.

Time and time again throughout the season, Edgecombe credited Maxey's assistance – literal and figurative – as he continued to blossom. And for Maxey, the only meaningful constant of Sixers basketball over the last three years, it had to feel quite refreshing and invigorating to learn in real time that the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft was even better than advertised.

As the Sixers embark on a search for a new lead executive in basketball operations and that person eventually begins thinking about how this roster should look moving into the final years of the 2020s and beyond, it should all be centered around Maxey – a brilliant three-level scorer with a blend of shot-making and speed unmatched in the NBA – and his mentee Edgecombe. It makes all of the sense in the world, on and off the court."

Having two players as young and talented as Maxey and Edgecombe is a blessing for any organization. Add in their positional fit and synergistic nature, and it is hard not to dream about where this partnership might lead.

"He means a lot to me," Edgecombe said of Maxey on Feb. 26.

MORE: Edgecombe taking "Boston Strangler" torch from Andrew Toney

Number to know

Edgecombe's total minutes as a rookie (regular season and playoffs): 3,030.

During the preseason, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was emphatic: whether or not Edgecombe had a successful rookie season would be determined by the number of minutes he logged. And in his three years in Philadelphia, nothing Nurse has done has been more consequential – positive or negative – than empowering Edgecombe immediately. Edgecombe started over Quentin Grimes right away, scored 34 points in his historic NBA debut, and it was off and running from there.

It was not just that Nurse wrote Edgecombe's name into his starting five 75 times during the regular season. The number of crunch-time situations the Sixers played in without Edgecombe on the floor could be counted on one hand. Even when Edgecombe's play in a particular game might not have warranted heavy minutes, Nurse stayed disciplined in his plan to keep his prized rookie on the floor.

Edgecombe needed to fail to learn, he needed to learn to get better, he needed to get better to log heavy minutes, and he needed to log heavy minutes to have a successful rookie season.

Over 3,000 minutes later, it is safe to say Edgecombe's rookie year was a massive success. Edgecombe started all 75 of his regular-season appearances and every postseason game, surpassing 3,000 minutes in total. He acknowledged after the Sixers' regular-season finale how appreciative he was of the opportunity Nurse had bestowed upon him.

"First of all, credit to Nurse for playing me that much. He asked me. He asked me if I'm good to play," Edgecombe said on April 12. "I told him, 'Yeah. You can play me more if you want to.' Obviously, I wanted to play 82, I wanted to play the full season, but I had little bumps and bruises. Thank God I played 75, that's still a lot. But I was happy with my minutes. I won't complain. Sometimes I used to get mad when I had to come off the court, but now I realize it's for the good of the team."

Salient soundbite

Maxey on Edgecombe, Feb. 26:

"I love VJ. I think everybody knows that. It's pretty evident. And [it’s] not just because of his basketball abilities, but who he is as a person. His family [is] a really good family, comes from a good place, and we just appreciate him here. We're blessed to have him. Our season was very, very, very, very bad last year – injuries and all those different things played a part in it – but we're blessed with VJ Edgecombe, and I think as a Sixers organization, as a fan base, we should be very happy, very pleased, and very thankful. I know I am. I'm extremely thankful for him."

MORE: Trading Maxey to start over would be crazy... right?

Question heading into the future

How much  – and how quickly – can Edgecombe improve as an on-ball scorer?

Early on in Edgecombe's rookie season, it was clear that his ball-handling and playmaking were ahead of schedule – at least relative to draft experts who warned against trusting him to provide either – but that he still had plenty of room for improvement in both areas. His early success was powered more by three-point shooting – also much better than expected from the outset – as well as transition scoring and perimeter defense.

When Paul George was suspended for 25 games in the middle of the season, the nine-time All-Star had nothing to do but work on his body and support his teammates. He got in the best shape of his Sixers tenure, he played for the scout team and mimicked many of the superstars the Sixers faced during his suspension, and most importantly, he took a special interest in helping Edgecombe work on his game.

Specifically, George helped Edgecombe improve a mid-range game that was clearly more advanced than he had gotten a chance to show, but also play at a slower pace. When a player with unfathomable explosiveness is comfortable playing slower, they can then hit that second gear on a more selective basis and have an easier time dusting defenders.

As the weeks went on, particularly in February and March, it became obvious how much Edgecombe's craftiness and comfort as an on-ball scorer were increasing. While it was already evident that Edgecombe's floor and ceiling were higher than people realized before the season began, this development was the one that really stamped him as having a remarkably high upside.

After Edgecombe posted a line of 23 points, six rebounds and four assists in the Sixers' first-round Game 7 road victory over the Boston Celtics – perhaps the greatest example of his flair for the dramatic – George was asked if his close work with Edgecombe makes it even more gratifying for him to watch the rookie's continued ascent.

"Yeah, but I can't take no credit for none of that," George said. "He's special, and he's been special, and he's shown it since day one, game one... He hit the ground running this year, and it's a good thing when the veteran guys expect so much out of the rookie – you can even say young guy, man, the rook – it just says a lot... I think the most important thing is: he's young, obviously, he's going to make some mistakes. But he just comes back and he's ready, and he makes those adjustments and he picks up where he left off. And when he does make a mistake, he makes 10 plays that kind of counter the mistakes. So he's very coachable, he's a student of the game, and he's just learning, getting better."

Between his coachable nature, terrific work ethic and – most importantly – unshakeable confidence, nobody should bet against Edgecombe continuing to level up as an on-ball player. Adding high-level on-ball work to Edgecombe's transition offense, perimeter defense, tenacious rebounding and high-volume spot-up three-point shooting would make for one hell of a player.

MORE: How Daryl Morey's Sixers tenure reached its end