Dream Fits: Pelicans, Trailblazers, Raptors

Overall Grade: 60.17

Projected Position: SG/PG

Strengths:

• Good movement skills, change of speed, change of direction & quick burst

• Great lateral movement & recovery

• Tracks rebounds well and uses athleticism to get the ball at a high point

• Jumps passing lanes well

• Doesn't lose composure when doubled & makes accurate passes out

• Good hands & secures balls well

• Very athletic

• Good base & motion on 3's with high %

• Uses hands & body well to deny passing lanes to trapped players or in 2v1 situations

• Good slips & cuts

• Generally good pass accuracy & good vision

• Sacrifices his body for loose balls

• Quick perimeter closeouts

• Good physicality vs bigger players in the paint & constantly repositions himself to deny the ball

• Good defense of drives quickly adjusting with man & using pokes to make guys uncomfortable

• Good decision making on when to go for strip

• Quick rotation & floating to help if needed

• Effective use of jump stop to create shots

• Good hangtime & takeoff for dunks

• Good switch decisions

• Good extension from a stationary position

• Able to split traffic well

Weaknesses:

• Limited offball movement, doesn't adjust position when teammates move or are trapped

• Exposes the ball too much

• Limited driving game, too often a straight line drive where he tries to create space by bulling into players

• Relies on help defense too often taking gambles on positioning

• Basic handle

• Unnecessary doubles without trapping leaving his man open

• Poor touch

• Some stupid fouls trying to strip the ball

• Questionable decision making offensively

OFF

• Erratic on offense

• super explosive, quick first step

• loose handle

• awkward jumper

• no bbiq

• play finisher right now

• needs to develop a much better handle to be an effective on ball scorer

• want to see more transition offense from him

• needs to develop a lot on offense this year to be worthy of top 3 consideration

DEF

• switchable onto bigs, not quite strong enough to hang with them a ton

• super explosive weak side rim protector, should put up a good amount of blocks

• great rebounder

• active hands

• active on ball defender, quick feet

• really long arms

OVERALL

• Every time I start to feel like he might never be great on offense, every time I feel like he might be a bust, he makes some insane dunk, chase down block, or other insane athletic highlight to bring me back

• He has a long way to go offensively, he needs to tighten his handle and figure out his jumper

• But his defense and athleticism are so incredibly enticing he has to be top 10 at worst

• He’s gonna take a lot of development but he for sure has star upside

• Highlight machine with the potential to be a true superstar with his athleticism

• Reminds me some of D-Wade

Last Ranking: 6

Trend: Neutral

Projected NBA rookie role: 3&D plug in play 2 guard

Projected NBA position: Guard

Projected Rookie Statline (Pts, Reb, Ast, Blk/Stl): 12, 4.5, 3

Strengths: Possibly the best athlete in the class, Great downhill driver, Willing passer in the halfcourt, great rebounder for his size. One of this classes best perimeter defenders and aslo holds his own in the paint, Improved shooter throughout the season

Weakness: Innifecient shooter out the gate, would like to see more lead guard abilities considering his size

Shades of/comp: Victor Oladipo, Iman Shumpert

Best outcome: Everything comes together for Edgecombe and he's an allstar level player

mid outcome: Above average offesnive asset who is still one of the leagues best perimeter defenders

worst outcome: Forced into a lead guard role because of his size and never developes a consistent playmaking palatte, Early college struggles show at the NBA level and is not a consistent shooter. Luckily for him he's still projects to be a very good perimeter defender.

Man VJ is an athlete! He's been shining for Baylor in College. He's a young very strong and talented Point Guard who can run the defense on a day to day basis. He is one of the best Defensive players in this class and everyone is interested in VJ. He's averaging 12 points 6 boards and 3 Assists. On the offensive end he is lacking a bit and needs to work on his shooting from inside and outside the arc. 43% from the field is still decent, but he will need to work on it to get higher on the ladder.

Shades of: Jrue Holiday I think is a very similar player to VJ,both defensive beasts who can lock up defenders.

Rating: B

still think edgecombe is a little raw, but he's definitely made strides throughout league play and has looked like a completely different player at times.

he's refined his playstyle, and it shows. i think his potential could be something to definitely look forward to; could be a very fun and entertaining player once in the league and if on the right team.

Pros:

• Defence/Passing Lanes

  • One of the things that translates the best to the NBA is defence, usually strong defenders in other leagues or college tend to be somewhat similar in the NBA, VJ Edgecombe definitely fits the bill as a strong defender. He is averaging 2.4 blocks (JAN 21st) and just under a block a game, amnd when you watch him his ability and smarts in the passing lanes really stand out. I feel like this is where those steals mostly come from, he reads passes very well and he is built well to play the passing lanes. He jumps high, feels like he has good reach although he has a 6'6 wingspan which isn't crazy for his height. But he just uses his athleticism and IQ in the lanes to get good steals, which helps him in offence which we will get to. Back to the defence, he is an above average on ball defender but he isn't going to absolutely shine out on that end, he is just good maybe a bit better than that at it and i'm sure he can build on that and turn it into something big about his game. He can get chase down blocks but again, he just uses his athleticism really well defensively, he's going to be a menace and elite passing lane player in the NBA

• Catch and shoot three/off ball play

  • he shoots a very good % from the catch and shoot and I think he's a very good and able off ball guy, his movement isn't anything crazy but he gets to his spots comfortably, he is found by the guards open and he knocks down a good number of them. It's something he definitely has shown through high school to now so it seems to be a skill he has consistency with and something that should be good in the NBA, its probably the only thing about his shot that really impresses me.

• Transition

  • he gets a ton of steals so he's able to get out in transition really easy and get easy shots. Due to his athleticism, he rarely gets stopped when moving in transition off steals. One thing I love when scouting prospects is players who can push pace. Pace is one of the best stats when looking at how effective an offence is so when I see prospects like VJ who get the ball out fast in transition and get easy shots for himself and his teammates, i'm going to like him.

• Athleticism

  • Definitely one of the most athletic prospects we have, Posters, chase downs, put backs, the whole lot. So many highlight real moves. he has great speed and strong reactions. Any prospect with a high level of athleticism like VJ has is going to get a lot of attention from NBA scouts and is going to rank higher on a teams big board. He knows how to use the athleticism, that's evident with how many times i've already talked about his athleticism when writing this. I'd be surprised if this doesn't cause him to go really early.

Cons:

• Moving shot

  • There are some prospects that you see who just can't develop a moving shot and never seem to work it out at the NBA level, they just don't understand it and have a mental block when trying to learn it. I think VJ is one of this guys, it's the way he is consistently short of the basket and the shot just doesn't seem to fall at all, now I don't think this necessarily a bad thing, I don't think VJ is going to be a primary option or ball handler, so he doesn't really need to be taking moving or pull up threes or moving shots when he's in the NBA, obviously he is a wing and you really like to have wings who can be a ball handler for your team but he can still be effective on offence without that. And VJ seems to realise that as he shoots a pretty low volume on pull up and moving shots and I really appreciate the awareness on that. obviously you don't want him to be scared away from taking any, that would be a really bad negative but to have him tweak his shot diet to avoid that would be important.

• Cold start- VJ has started to heat up from three, but he started off with a bunch of problems from three. Now I really hate players that need time to heat up, now if he can be consistent for the rest of the year, I probably wouldn't complain about this. Effectively, I want to see if he is a streaky shooter or not.

• Self Creation

  • VJ has got the atheleticism to create a shot at the basket and the speed to get separation but he doesn't seem to strong and he doesn't have a very deep bag of handles. I would really like him to expand his bag and become a creator, this is probably the biggest swing factor, if he can start creating shots for him and his teammates and a consistent level, I can definitely see him being used as a ball handler, but that moving jumper is what is really going to decide wether VJ Is going to have a large ball handling duty, a 1st option with the ball.

Interesting factor:

• Defensive Menace

  • One of the biggest continuity points for the best teams in the NBA has been strong defensive players and VJ edgecombe is going to supply that for you. VJ edgecombe is going to be a premier defensive wing at the next level, going to grab a bunch of steals and I think it would be a great idea for a top team to invest in a player who I think is going to be very important to a team in transition to competing to take a type of guy like this. Now a tanking team could really help develop the offence, but I much prefer him to impact a young team with some competitive ambitions going into next year or a team who had a bad season but should be competitive next year

Conclusion:

Prospect ceiling: Perennial all star/Occasional all NBA

Pick Range: 4-12

NBA Comp: Larry Hughes, could see a bit of Victor Oladipo or Kris Dunn

Best Fits: -

• Charlotte

• Brooklyn

• Golden State

Ridiculously athletic and explosive. Gets to the rim with ease. His jumper definitely needs work but has improved since the beginning of the year. Tight handle. Great on-and-off ball defender. Passes and sees the floor well. He could challenge Harper for the title of best guard in the class.

NBA Comp: Victor Oladipo/Bigger De'Aaron Fox

Projected draft range:

Projected NBA rookie role:

Projected NBA position:

Projected Rookie Statline:

Strengths:

Weakness:

Shades of/comp: