I LOVE This for the Sixers...

I absolutely love this. There is a lot of good to talk about so far through the Sixers season. And you guys have all told me to stop on the negative anyway. So what do you say we have a good vibes only episode to talk about how VJ Edgecombe has grown into just an awesome little spark plug for this team. Or as our graphics department says, he has embraced his new Sixers role, Which is... Looking at LeBron with absolute love and admiration. I mean, tell me VJ Edgecombe does not just look genuinely like if any of us got the chance to be out there on the court. The dude looks like he is having an absolute blast. What's going on, everybody? Christian Pedersen back with another episode of Sixers Digest, the show that is going to be talking nothing but positive vibes on this episode. So if you are of similar tastes, like, subscribe, comment, share, follow, all those other YouTube things. Thanks. There was. Unending and unyielding discussions in this offseason about what's going to happen with the roles that these people are going to take and this, that, the other, about how it was all being framed in this negative way of how there was going to be a usage rate problem and an ego problem and all of these things. The one thing with VJ was going to be this discussion of after averaging them. Phenomenal amounts of points and assists and touches in his rookie year. How was he going to be able to maintain? How was he going to have a sophomore slump? And all of that, I think, kind of falls into maybe like... The discussion of do his numbers match his contribution and does his contribution still equal success? And I would say that Nick Nurse has talked about the role kind of eloquently, is that his role had shifted, but his ultimate top priority is to supply energy. And that kind of feels like mission accomplished so far for VJ this season. We have seen some games where there have been Some definite moments of, you know, lots of scoring, 20 plus points, but there's also been some nights where he, you know, he was taught, this is a quote from him, he doesn't talk about getting antsy or impatient or anything, at this point it was a couple games ago, but he has been kind of just waiting in the wings, playing really good defense, maybe not scoring. nearly as much, but his connection with Tyrese Maxey has been fantastic. They have been out there together, still being that dynamic duo, and if anything, VJ has just kind of been the ultimate dynamic backup for everybody, and it's been some games where he's created... Just havoc with his speed. Some games where he's been out there, you know, daggers three. And in all of that, I want to grade him as maybe, is this too crazy to say that he's having the best adjustment of anybody? Of this team, and I'm not going to say is having the best season because I've already done a video about having, let's do Maxi for MVP. So I'm not going to double up on that. But in terms of the adjustments necessary versus the output that we're seeing, VJ seems to have just Great. Cool. Today, I get a bunch of shots. Tomorrow, I get no shots. I got to play a ton of defense here. I get to be all the assists over there and is just like swimming, just easy vibes on every single game and is underlying all of that with an absolute ton of hustle. And his effort every night is not going unnoticed. This is a quote from Anthony Simons talking about how he is out there just playing his. butt off every single night and sometimes it's it's that that's where i'm talking about it's hard to translate that from the box score to be like you look at and you're like you talked about the larger point of this team's rebounding struggles still this season and this team's shooting percentage struggles and this team not necessarily having um the You know, the entire offense kind of dialed in and figured out. And part of that would be looking at how VJ, 20 points a game last year, and then went into the FIBA term in the offseason. It was 20-plus points. Like, he is an offensive dynamo if you feed him, but is now having games where it was like six points. 12 points. His recent scoring has definitely gone up, but you can see where that's like, there's peaks and valleys like right next to each other in a way, sorry for scooting back from the mic there. I needed to do my calisthenics. There's peaks and valleys in a way that you might look at that and be like, okay, he's not having, he's having an inconsistent season. He's not having his best season. He's not trending upwards. He's not developing. It's a, we need to be seen better. But at the same time, The fact that he's capable of... doing that and then smile. I see, I see tweets out there being like, uh, find you a man who looks at, uh, find you a man who looks at you the way that VJ looks at LeBron. And it's just, he's just happy. Dare I say, part of this team's success that we're seeing this season is to have that dog in him and to have that fight in him and to have that, like, never say quit, never break mentality. And I can't, I feel like I can't overstate the fact that that partially comes from VJ Edgecombe just being the Duracell bunny and, or the Energizer, whichever one that is. His... Scoring on the good nights, let's talk about that 21-point night that he had. It's balanced, man. He's scoring, and as always, if you want to check out more of these graphics, head over to DigestSports.com. He's hitting threes, and then he's slashing in the paint, and the points in the paint is something to me that... If you look at the overall, sometimes, like I said, when you zoom out, there are some trends that are not the best for this team, and one of those is scoring in the paint, and if VJ is there helping in spades, despite not being the size of Joel Embiid, but if VJ is there to pick that up, that's where I just keep harping back on, he might actually be of anybody. Having. The best season or the best adjustment season between last year to this year in terms of how everybody needs to fit into their new roles. I think that the debate can go on of does he need more consistent scoring? Does he need this? But at the same time, those feel like national narratives that lack the context of having watched these games every night. And I would say that we should be having those about Embiid. We should be talking about... uh lebron and the the rotations more and i dare i say let's just let's just keep talking about how much we all freaking love VJ and how good he is getting and how every single day he is getting better for us in a way that maybe is inconsistent it's not the same way every day but he is getting better every game in a way that is absolutely scary to the rest of the NBA if because by the The end of the season. Say Embiid's shooting gets, like, you know, good enough, like, buoys up a little bit that he's 70% of himself, and LeBron gets it dialed in, and Jalen's averaging about 30, and Max, he's averaging about 30, and Dean Wade keeps doing his defense thing, and Simons, and Buckets, and KCP, and Dembona gets healthy, and we find that we trade for a backup set. All of that would be a winning thing. But then to say, oh, yeah, we have the ultimate Swiss army knife of. He can score 20-plus in the paint if we need it. He can also, though, play defense like a freaking demon. Just, how do you not love that? And then give that an A-plus for from last year to this year. You grew, and you just grew in a way that the national media doesn't appreciate it. So, that's what I got for you on VJ Edgecombe. Hope you're having a great day. Go Sixers. Like, subscribe, comment, share, follow, all those other YouTube-y buttons. Until next time, we'll talk to you guys soon.