Ace Bailey vs VJ Edgcombe Was…

Ace Bailey vs VJ Edgcombe Was…

To kick off NBA Summer League, we got to look at the third and the fifth pick in the draft this year. VJ Edgecomb vers Ace Bailey. And one, it’s rare to get this good of a matchup of top prospects this early on in summer league before we even get to Vegas. And also, these are two prospects that are going to be connected forever. Ace Bailey, I think if he had done the draft process correctly, and normally probably would have gone third overall to Philadelphia. It’s very likely is the third best or third most talented prospect in the class. He falls to five and VJ Edgecomb slides into that spot. Obviously, it’s still just summer league, but this was also the perfect game to encapsulate the difference between each of their games as prospects and possibly what they’re going to look like as future NBA players. It’s still so early on in their careers, but it’s still really fun to take a look at. So, first, let’s talk about VJ Edgecomb going into the draft process. The narrative around him was that he was this really great athlete, more of a complimentary fit than someone like Ace Bailey, someone that’s going to play off of another, you know, more ball dominant guard or in this case in Philadelphia, a guy in Tyrese Maxi that likes to have the ball along with Joel Embiid, a guy that likes to have the ball. And the VJ Edgecom’s going to be out there defending, shooting, and working off of those guys. and as a result has a little bit more of a higher floor than someone like Ace Bailey that projects more as the focal point of an offense superstar kind of player if he reaches his full potential and a lot of people saw that as an ideal fit for Philadelphia once the Ace Bailey thing kind of fell apart. Having that more complimentary option in Philly with VJ Edgecomb made a lot of sense. And you saw a bunch of other things from VJ Edgecomb in college, a little bit more on the ball, a lot of attacking the rim. But overall, the narrative for him as a prospect was a little bit more of a high floor rather than this crazy upside. But I think the comparison to Bailey specifically kind of warped the perception of VJ Edgecomb as a player. And it’s been said publicly in a bunch of different places that he as well as his camp, the people around him do see him as an onball creator at the NBA level. They think it’s something one that he can develop and two that he can showcase now. And in this game, he definitely showed us more of that. He was hitting some of these dribble pull-ups. He was getting to the rim. He was operating out of ball screens and pick and rolls. And obviously part of that is because it’s summer league. He’s the best guy on the team. He’s the player that everybody’s there to evaluate and develop. So he’s going to get plenty of opportunities. and he got a ton of opportunities certainly in terms of shot attempts, but pretty much everything that you saw for VJ Edgecomb matched what you expected from him as a prospect and then some and kind of validated all of these things that maybe he and his camp felt about him as a player in terms of being able to do a little bit more on the ball. Obviously, the big differentiator for him in his career is going to be shooting specifically off the ball. He’s not going to be someone that’s going to get a ton of pick and roll reps every single game, at least early in his career. So, he’s got to be able to space off the ball, and that’s something that he’s still working on. He’s an incredible athlete, really can guard, really can get to the rim, outstanding in transition, but we’ve seen this kind of archetype not develop the way that we’d hoped just because they can’t hit shots off the ball. And if he can, this is going to be a really great pick for Philadelphia regardless of how much of that upside he actually fulfills. I’ve seen some comparisons, some comps for him in the draft process that I really like. One is Victor Olado Adipo but like a few inches taller. Someone that is a really good defender but then you’re asking them to do some stuff on the ball. And if that’s what he turns into minus all the injury stuff that is a pretty much perfect complimentary fit alongside Tyres Maxi and Joel Embiid as someone that can guard but also can take some of that on ball responsibility and score. And I think early on already just in this game, VJ Edgecom, although yes, it was a lot of shot attempts and yes, it was still just summer league on the surface showed you a bunch of the things that made him the third overall pick in the first place. On the other hand, probably the most polarizing player, not probably, definitely the most polarizing player and prospect in the entire class was Ace Bailey. And I think this game was also perfectly representative of the kind of prospect that he was and maybe what some of the concerns are for him at the NBA level. Obviously, like I said in the beginning, caveat, these guys could go complete opposite directions. Summer League doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with how well you do as an NBA player, but for Ace and VJ specifically, I just thought it was an interesting game because it was pretty much spot-on for what you expected. Ace as a prospect was seen as a guy that can really shoot and can really score, but more so as a as a tough shot maker. not necessarily someone that’s getting a ton of easy shots, not necessarily someone that’s breaking people down off the dribble and getting to the rim all the time, but he’s big, has a high release point, and can really shoot the ball. And so his shotmaking is the way that he scores in addition to some some really great tools athletically, uh, defensively, there’s some upside there if he really wants to commit to it. And you can just tell when he has the ball in his hands, there’s this explosiveness and this dynamism that really excites you. And that’s kind of where this narrative of being one of the most talented players in the class comes from, even if he wasn’t one of the top three picks in the class. The problem for Ace, and I think we saw that a little bit in this game, is creating those shots rather than just making tough ones all the time. There are plenty of players in the NBA that are incredible tough shot makers, but also create easy ones. It’s incredibly difficult to average 20 points a game at the NBA level if every single shot you take is difficult. every single shot you take is a mid-range pull up off of a post up with a bigger defender on you or trying to take off the dribble threes with a hand in your face. It’s really difficult to score 20 points and be efficient at the NBA level with that kind of shot diet. And that was the concern for Ace Bailey was a little bit of the kind of Jabari Smith offensive game. He has a little bit more of a handle than someone like Jabari did in college. a lot of I’m going to take these 18-footers over guys in college that are just not on my same level in terms of size, skill, and athleticism, and I’m going to make them over them because I’m a great tough shot maker, but there’s not a lot else in my game. And I think you saw a little bit of that in this first game for Ace Bailey where if he’s not putting pressure on the rim, you’re not feeling his presence a ton offensively if he’s missing shots, which in this game he was. If he’s hitting, you’re going to have some really explosive offensive games from Ace Bailey. This exact kind of game and narrative around him is one of the reasons that my comp for him was a little bit more in the like Michael Porter Jr. kind of mold where he’s never really going to be someone that’s going to get to the rim or that you’re going to be giving a bunch of of ball screen reps and pick and roll reps to, but he can really shoot the ball. Michael Porter Jr. even though the contract and injuries and all these things kind of bring him down, he is one of the better shooters in the entire league when he’s right. And I could see that kind of path for Ace Bailey. Now, it’s not that he 100% won’t reach star or superstar status at the NBA level because there’s a reason he was a top five pick in the draft and he’s still so young and there’s a ton of things he can still grow and develop. But if you’re looking for this is the reason why VJ Edgecom went over Ace Bailey outside of the weirdness of the draft process that Ace Bailey did to himself. This game is a pretty perfect encapsulation of the difference between them as players in terms of the way that VJ can impact the game and does impact the game. I think athletically Ace could impact the game in all the ways that VJ does, except his handle isn’t quite as good in terms of getting to the rim. But right now, VJ is just more willing and more able to do more stuff, especially if he’s not hitting shots. Yes, he took a ton of shots, but there’s just more that he can do on the floor than Ace Bailey can at this moment. Now, in two years, three years, maybe Ace Bailey figures out the handle, gets to the rim a bunch more, and all that tough shotmaking stuff is still there. But he also figures out how to create space and how to create easy ones for himself. and he improves as a passer. So at two years from now in Utah, he’s the main onball creator in Utah and they’ve got this really nice core arounds him. That’s absolutely possible. And it’s also definitely possible that VJ Edgecomb is just like Quinton Grimes basically who’s like a solid player but doesn’t necessarily provide the value of someone that you picked with the top three pick because offensively they just never fully developed. They’re not efficient enough offensively to focus on them, but they’re just good enough that they’re going to be out there 35 minutes a game and they can really guard, but there’s not a whole lot else happening there. That is absolutely possible. But I just thought this particular summer league game was interesting. I don’t try to gleam a lot from summer league games in general, but it was just the perfect encapsulation of what made them different as draft prospects and the fact that they played against each other and in many ways were playing against each other for the third overall pick during the draft process and the situation that Philadelphia is in potentially dictating what they did or didn’t want out of that spot. All of those things came together in a really perfect way in this game and I can’t wait to see what they continue to look like as we go forward to Vegas and throughout the season. These two guys are going to be connected for the entirety of their careers and at least so far. If you’re a Sixers fan after just one summer league game, you’re probably feeling pretty good. Like I said, that isn’t necessarily indicative of how players career is going to

Ace Bailey vs VJ Edgcombe to kick off 2025 NBA Summer League was certainly interesting for the Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz…

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