CAMDEN, N.J. -- Shortly after the Sixers selected VJ Edgecombe with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the team's newest building block held his first media availability with Philadelphia reporters.
Edgecombe spoke with passion and intensity about wanting to retire as teammates with Tyrese Maxey. He argued that Jared McCain would have been the NBA Rookie of the Year had he not gotten injured. He referred to Joel Embiid and Paul George as "most likely Hall of Famers."
But one particular remark made by Edgecombe caused a lot of laughter on the Zoom call, and it was about Eric Gordon, one of Edgecombe's teammates with the Bahamian national team. Now they would be joining forces again in Philadelphia.
"It's crazy me and EG are teammates now," Edgecombe said. "EG... EG is old, man. I tell him all the time. He's old, man."
To be fair, Edgecombe's date of birth -- July 30, 2005 -- lands right around the first time Eric Gordon committed to a college basketball program.
Now, Gordon is a 36-year-old entering his 18th season in the NBA. The decorated sharpshooter returned to the Sixers on a one-year deal at the veteran's minimum salary over the summer a few days after declining a player option, and part of the Sixers' calculus behind retaining an aging veteran was that he could continue his mentorship of Edgecombe as the 21-year-old gets his feet wet in the NBA.
Many Sixers draftees have entered unusual situations and had to adjust accordingly. Edgecombe, to a large degree, will be no different. But Edgecombe appreciates having Gordon in place as someone he can lean on.
"Just how great of a person and how great of a vet he is," Edgecombe told PhillyVoice in August. "He helped me with Team Bahamas, he helped me a lot. And that's someone I'm definitely looking forward to being on the same team with again... He's a great vet, so I'm definitely looking forward to learning from him."
In a conversation with PhillyVoice on Sep. 27, Gordon expressed excitement about what he can teach Edgecombe about succeeding at this level and the heights the rookie eventually will reach. Nowadays, Gordon is a catch-and-shoot specialist, but back in his day, he had bounce. He entered the NBA as a similar player to what Edgecombe is now. He thinks it gives him a uniquely helpful perspective on top of their pre-existing relationship.
"It's all about doing what you do best. Me as a vet, before he goes into every game, I'm going to tell him what other teams are doing to him," Gordon said. "People are going to be afraid of him athletically as he plays downhill and gets to the rim. That's going to be good for him, but I think when he starts knocking down shots, that's going to be the ultimate game-changer: when he's able to make catch-and-shoots, then I can already know he's going to have really good games."
Edgecombe and Gordon encapsulate the two-timeline approach to team-building that the Sixers have embraced. As Embiid's availability dwindles, the organization is attempting to account for its long-term health while also remaining in the mix to contend for championships in the next few seasons. It is a tremendously difficult balance to strike, and after the miserable 24-58 season that was 2024-25, there are not many external believers.
In many ways, fans viewed Gordon as a proxy for all that was wrong with the team's roster last season. Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey acknowledged after the season that the front office had put too much focus on accumulating veterans with playoff experience and not enough on youth and athleticism. As an older player whose game is no longer predicated upon athleticism whatsoever, it was easy to connect the dots between those comments and Gordon.
In the same vein, Gordon had every reason to look elsewhere. He has nearly two full decades of experience in the NBA, has made enormous amounts of money and filled every possible role within a rotation. The only thing missing is a championship, and Gordon acknowledged that winning a title is still among his focuses. It is easy to connect those dots, too, and conclude that this is not the place Gordon should want to be.
So why stay in Philadelphia after how nightmarish last season was?
"We have the talent. We have a good combination of young and older guys," Gordon said. "...We do have enough talent to make the playoffsand we do have enough talent to go the distance as long as we stay healthy and stay together."
Another factor in his decision to stick with the Sixers, Gordon said, was one of the primary reasons he ended up here: his relationship with Morey, a close bond that first formed with the Houston Rockets. There is mutual trust.
"Yeah, for sure," Gordon said. "Because I know how he operates, and for me, I know where I'm at in my career: my place is to open up the floor for other guys and when you've seen it -- last year, before I got injured, I was hitting a lot of threes, spacing, letting guys operate, spacing to floor. So it was a good combination during that point before I got injured."
Even without factoring in his connections to Edgecombe or Morey, the Sixers believed Gordon could help them win games in some capacity after missing the last two months of the season because of wrist surgery. It is an unpopular opinion, but it is one the team holds.
"First of all, he had the hand surgery and he's come out of that completely fine," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said after the team's practice on Thursday. "I've asked him about it a number of times and he just says there's absolutely no issues with it... I do think he came back also a little leaner and I think that is a positive for him."
Most of Gordon's appearances for the Sixers last season were struggles. But in his finest moments -- particularly the month of January -- Gordon played so well that his season-long numbers as a shooter looked very strong regardless:
Month Games Played 3PA/G 3P%
October 4 3.3 23.1
November 12 2.4 24.1
December 3 3.0 44.4
January 17 4.6 52.6
February 3 2.7 12.5
Full season 39 3.5 40.9
Gordon started on opening night, but with Embiid and George sidelined, the team needed more playmaking. Gordon and Embiid figured to be a strong match, but they barely ever ended up sharing the floor. Gordon fell out of the rotation entirely by December, then was briefly unavailable due to a dental issue.
Upon being thrown back into the mix in January, Gordon shot the lights out. He paired significant three-point volume with ridiculous efficiency from beyond the arc and Nurse found unconventional ways to leverage his strength on defense. Gordon is 6-foot-3, but he functioned as a bigger wing on that end of the floor. It actually worked.
"He was guarding some bigger guys," Nurse said. "...He's actually good at it. He's really, physically they don't move him around much, even if they're taller they can hold him off the block and he can block them out and things like that, so that's one thing. And two: I think that we could be in some small-lineup situations that would lend itself to that if need be."
January represented everything the Sixers thought they could get from Gordon. But only a few games into February came the season-ending wrist injury.
"Yeah, it was tough. Because I always tell everybody, last year was the first time where my minutes were very mixed up, so it was a new thing for me," Gordon said. "But when I did know I was going to play or start or play more minutes, I kind of knew what kind of groove I was in, and that's why I did well."
The natural follow-up question is obvious: is Gordon antsy to get back on the floor to show that run was not a fluke?
"Yes, no question. I mean, I've been through a lot of good battles throughout my whole career, and I've definitely got something to prove," Gordon said. "And when I'm out there, I've just got to do my part, and I think it really shows. And I think with my style, I let people play, and I complement the guys."
It is difficult to imagine Gordon fitting into this team's rotation for the majority of the season without Nurse taking a sizable gamble on Gordon's ability to guard up full-time rather than as part of a sporadic gimmick. Maxey, McCain, Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes make up a young and dynamic foursome of guards; Gordon breaking into that mix permanently would be a major surprise. But Gordon has been on many winning teams, and he still thinks he can help this team establish itself as one.
"It's by reading the room and understanding where we're at as a team. We've got a mixture of a lot of young guys and a lot of veteran guys, and we're trying to play faster," Gordon said. "So as long as we all know chemistry-wise what guys do what best, I think that'll fit overall. But we've got to start getting a routine of things individually and collectively as a group."
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