👋 Good morning! Only real hoopers know that Frank Selvy was A PROBLEM.

Not a bad debut for Valdez Jr., who was decidedly not playing against plumbers and firemen. We will get to him in a second.

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About 95 percent down my Sixers section yesterday, I included the following two sentences: And who knows, maybe Edgecombe is awesome right away? It is at least in play.

Well, your friendly neighborhood newsletter writer sure knows how to bury a lede. Kyle’s observations are here. A triumphant post-game pod after Sixers 117, Celtics 116 is here.

In many ways, my mind was blown by how VJ Edgecombe played in his NBA debut. It’s only natural to be surprised. Rookies are not supposed to go into that house of horrors and drop 34 points to go with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. The NBA is supposed to be hard, after all. Edgecombe’s high point total last season at Baylor? 30, against Kansas State. He already topped it, it took all of one night.

Then again, we probably should not be that surprised that Edgecombe showed out. He played one healthy game in summer league and dropped 28 points. He had 26 points in the preseason finale last week. Every interview reveals that he is a mature kid who is unafraid of the moment. Every game reveals that his athleticism is gonna pop in the pace-and-space style of the NBA in ways that it did not in college hoops.

Speaking of that nuclear athleticism, woo boy. Xavier Tillman might as well have been moving in cement. Plays like this make you think that switching centers onto him is not gonna be a viable strategy even for his rookie season.

Simply being unafraid really is such a big deal on an NBA court. The Celtics packed the paint like crazy to begin the game, and part of that strategy was to help off Edgecombe. Well, that strategy might have worked last week against that guy from the Hartford Courant that Joe Mazzulla was playing all-out against. But not VJ, who missed his first two 3s and just kept on firing. On another note, Mazzulla still probably slept like a baby after his 5,000th viewing of The Town’s extended cut.

In total, VJ went 5-13 from beyond the arc. I am almost as impressed by the second number as the first number. Remember, shooting was a question mark for him coming into the league. To get up 13 3s in his first game is legitimate accomplishment! More games like this, and his world opens up as a slasher.

Now, it’s just one night. I have seen Sixers rookies have great debuts and not necessarily back it up over time. Evan Turner? Nice debut. Michael Carter-Williams? Really nice debut, against the LeBron-Wade-Bosh Heat to boot. One game does not a career make, but it’s OK to be excited about VJ Edgecombe. You clearly should be excited about VJ Edgecombe.

Tyrese Maxey was not too shabby himself: 40 points (13-24 FG, 7-9 3P, 7-8 FT) and 6 assists. Mad Max absolutely fried the Celtics, and would have been the player of the game on any other night. But Maxey having a monster scoring night is not a revelation in the same way that it is with Edgecombe. We have seen that from him before.

There were three rotation players — Paul George, Jared McCain, Trendon Watford — likely out for this game. But even with that in mind, what a bizarre roster construction this Sixers team has. Here are the two lineups that closed the gap in the 42-30 fourth quarter:

If you are keeping score at home, that is a couple of two-way players (Barlow, Walker) who were two of the Sixers’ six most trusted players on opening night. Daryl Morey has been pretty solid at the end-of-roster stuff during his Sixers tenure, and he clearly took advantage of the Sixers’ lack of depth at the 4 in selling the opportunity to Walker and Barlow. In particular, Barlow is a hellacious offensive rebounder.

Now, why did the Sixers go small with a couple of two-way guys? Because Joel Embiid was maybe the worst player on the floor, which is such a bummer. 1-9 from the field, -16 overall, just a completely depressing watch. The Celtics deployed a bunch of smaller centers who played Embiid physically, and he just did not even come close to matching their physicality. He did not trust that left knee even a little bit.

As Derek pointed out, Embiid has always been a notoriously slow starter. In Game 2 of Embiid’s MVP season, he went 6-21 from the field. In Game 1 a few years ago, he went 9-21 with seven turnovers. And I liked that Embiid was not moping later in the game, he was all smiles congratulating Edgecombe. But yeah, that was a really tough watch.

The good news, though? Regardless of what Embiid gives the Sixers, there seems to be a path for them to be at least a competitive, competent and fun basketball team. And that starts with their young backcourt, Mssrs. Maxey and Edgecombe.

Long season ahead, but a fun start.

Injury report: The Kelly Greens are back this week, which means the Giants are really screwed. But we also have a pretty long injury report this week, including Cam Jurgens and A.J. Brown, who did not practice.

Does not seem like Azeez Ojulari will be available on Sunday. But you know who is out on the practice field?

Sua’s back: And oh yeah, Jakorian Bennett is back at practice. Expect two segments on this before Swooper today.

Big Eagles-Giants preview headed your way tomorrow.

Danny Briere: Looking good! The facial hair aged him down, I dunno, exactly 20 years.

Headed back to Guelph? Interesting first segment on yesterday’s Flyers show, talking about Jett Luchanko and how he is likely headed back to Guelph before the nine-game window is up. The Flyers have not announced anything yet, but things sure feel like they are trending in that direction. Luchanko’s numbers are basically the same as a season ago (when he was sent down), and he is basically only being given fourth-line minutes.

It was interesting to hear Charlie say that he understands the Rick Tocchet criticism for this Luchanko situation more than his handling of Matvei Michkov. Whenever Tocchet gets asked about Luchanko, it’s basically just, “I wished he shot more…”

Which is true! The Jett is like Hockey Ben Simmons out there, afraid to even look at the net, but he also only plays 8-10 minutes each night on the fourth line. I liked Bill’s idea that will never happen: Give Sean Couturier a night off on a back-to-back against Calgary for some quiet load management and let’s see what the Tippett-Luchanko-Konecny Line of Chaos looks like just for funzies. Again, this will never happen, but it’s pretty good as far as fan fiction goes.

While Luchanko is likely going back to juniors, Maddie Campbell always has some great Phantoms coverage for us on the site. Alex Bump is starting to round into form, some pretty saucy plays down on the farm from Bumpy.

Bryce Harper trade slop: (*Old timey newspaper voice*) Slop right here! Get your half-baked slop right here!

Last week, we wrote about Dave Dombrowski’s passive-aggressive comments about Bryce Harper. Admittedly the most interesting part of his marathon press conference.

Perhaps those comments have jumpstarted silly season for the Fightin Phils. On his podcast, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman (who is decently big name when it comes to MLB newsbreaking and such) said that Dombrowski might have been challenging Harper… but also that he would not be 100 percent shocked if Harper got traded this offseason. That would be interesting to me, I for one would be pretty shocked.

And I love my guy Tyler putting ten toes down that Bryce is not going anywhere.

Sherman is not the only person getting out in front of Phillies Silly Season. A few weeks ago, I saw Ruben Amaro Jr., without naming names, speculate that one of the Phillies’ big contracts could get moved. RAJ also mentioned “no-trade clauses,” so that sure sounds like Bryce Harper or Trea Turner to me.

Considering how last offseason turned out, I do think it’s natural to look at some of the more high-priced players. Everyone wants “change” with a Phillies team that keeps coming up short in the playoffs, but it’s hard to actually define what change you want… and then it’s even harder to figure out how that change is palatable to a contending team that probably does not have a ton of extra money to throw around. The Phillies clearly wanted to shake something up last offseason, and they found nothing close to acceptable while dangling a decent player like Alec Bohm. So, maybe you try to look higher. I dunno.

Regardless, I agree with Tyler. It would be quite surprising to see Bryce on the move. Some of the reasons…

And hey, if Tyler’s wrong, at least Old Takes Exposed will get some fresh content.

And the first-round opponent is… Chicago Fire.

And their coach, who I just looked it up, is… Gregggggggggg Berhalter! How about that?

Again, the MLS is incredibly weird. They have a three-game series in the Round of 16 and then everything after that is single-elimination. I guess they are looking to avoid upsets with such a big playoff field (good for the Union, in theory). But yeah, it’s weird. Anyway, the first-round schedule for the Union:

*If necessary

Hey, an actual road game for the Flyers! This is the only one away from South Philly in a nine-game stretch for the Orange and Black — 3-1-0 to begin that home-heavy period, against some pretty good teams — and it is in Ottawa against Claude Giroux and the fellas (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). I just looked at the Sens’ lines and Olle Lycksell plays for them as well. Good to know, good for him.

Besides that, we will have Swooper in preparation for Eagles-Giants, a look back at Sixers-Celtics and plenty more for you. I am curious how the Vikings fare on TNF against one of my favorite hate-watches, Justin Herbert. I think I will be pulling weirdly hard for Carson and The Gambler to get back on track in that one. SKOL! SKOL! FOLES! SKOL!

Your tentative Thursday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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