The second round of the 2025 NBA Draft takes place tonight on ESPN.
With Rutgers star Ace Bailey on the board Wednesday night, the Sixers easily could have gotten caught up in the same dream as the rest of the draft industrial complex. They could have focused on the prototypical frame, and the projectable athleticism, and the 10 percent of the time when those things combined to make him look like a future NBA star.
Bailey made it easy on the Sixers, refusing to meet with them or any other NBA team in hopes of landing somewhere that could offer him unfettered shot volume. There were already questions about how a player who has drawn comparisons to Kevin Durant couldn’t lead his college team to a winning season — let alone a tournament run — while playing alongside another Top 5 pick in Dylan Harper. After watching how Bailey and his handlers dealt with their perspective employers during the run-up to the draft, the questions about Rutgers’ losing didn’t seem so mysterious. VJ Edgecombe offered a dramatic contrast. While he plays much bigger and stronger than his 6-foot-4 frame, and has a good wingspan and standing reach that should enable him to hold his own at multiple positions, he does not have Bailey’s outlier length, nor his shot-making upside. But he has plenty of potential to go with the instincts and two-way toughness he displayed at Baylor. Comps are difficult with players this young. ESPN’s Jay Bilas mentioned Victor Oladipo and Dwayne Wade. Stylistically, I see his ceiling more like Jaylen Brown in Josh Hart’s frame. The important thing is that he has All-Star potential, and that, even if he does not reach his ceiling, his mentality will at least render him a winning player on a winning team. “You don’t pick high very often so you want to pick guys who have All-Star capabilities and he definitely has that,” Morey said. — David Murphy
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