Around the Beat: Maxey and Edgecombe Are Rewriting the…

By the 76ers Nightly Desk · Thursday, October 15

Local outlets are split between crowning Maxey and Edgecombe as the new faces of the team and still waiting on real answers for Bona and Barlow. The front office chatter about Champagnie, Walker and Jemison is just chatter until somebody actually signs a contract.

76ers Nightly artwork — Illustration by Hoops Nightly.

Is Tyrese Maxey actually the franchise's lead voice now?

The Inquirer's Gina Mizell and Liberty Ballers' Paul Hudrick are both writing him up as the bona fide star in his biggest role yet. The numbers back it: 28.3 points and 6.6 assists over 70 games last season, the lead scorer on a team that still finished 45-37. That's not hype, that's math.

Does VJ Edgecombe's preseason actually threaten the hierarchy?

The Sixer Sense's Nicolas Kyle Pring argued Edgecombe is making the "untouchable" hierarchy look shaky, and the Inquirer's Chris Hine wrote that his teammates respect how bluntly he talks. Last season he averaged 16.0 points over 75 games as a rookie; Friday against Boston he dropped 19 in a blowout loss. One preseason line doesn't flip a pecking order, but it's a real data point.

What's the actual word on Adem Bona and Dominick Barlow?

The Sixer Sense's Nicolas Kyle Pring and Liberty Ballers' Tom West both frame Bona's bigger workload as an opportunity with a weakness to fix, while Justin Grasso noted Barlow is still without a timeline. The practice report backs that up: Bona and Simons were partial participants, Barlow didn't practice at all, and Nurse called himself merely "hopeful" they play Friday. That's not a green light, that's a maybe.

Are the Sixers really hunting for a trade before the opener?

The Sixer Sense's Nicolas Kyle Pring floated Justin Champagnie as a bargain target and noted the Sixers offered Lonnie Walker more room than Denver would; colleague Justin Grasso flagged free agent center Trey Jemison as available at a "critical time." None of that is confirmed anywhere on this roster — Lowry, Beauchamp and Martin left September 21, and nobody has replaced them through three preseason games. The need is real. The reported fixes are still just reports.

The verdictThe pecking order talk about Maxey and Edgecombe tracks with their own box scores; the trade and depth rumors don't track with anything the front office has done yet. Believe the stats, not the speculation.

Is VJ Edgecombe better than Tyrese Maxey right now?

No — Maxey averaged 28.3 points and 6.6 assists over 70 games last season to Edgecombe's 16.0 points as a rookie. Edgecombe is rising fast, but the gap is still real.

Will the 76ers actually trade for help before the opener?

Nothing on the roster says so. The Sixers have run three preseason games with the same group left after Lowry, Beauchamp and Martin departed on September 21, and no addition has been made.