The first year of the “Big Three” Sixers with Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey could not have gone much worse. Injuries submarined them from the jump, and they stumbled to an embarrassing 24-58 record that kept them out of the play-in tournament, much less the playoffs.
The silver lining of that disastrous campaign was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, which the Sixers spent on Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe. While that beat the alternative—the Sixers would have sent their first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder had it fallen outside the top six—Edgecombe’s $11.