Justin Edwards Will Be Better Than Paul George Next Year

AU on a tanking-season take that he probably mostly believes.

Well, the nine-time all-star who we spent $212 million on last summer might not have turned out to be the Paul George we hoped, but at least the undrafted free agent who we signed to a two-way a few days before that still might.

For a minute there, it looked like Quentin Grimes was going to be the apple of my tanking-season eye -- and he's still been beautiful, with his 25-point game streak and his shooting off the dribble and his bizarre newfound effectiveness at getting to the line. But I should've known it was always really going to be Justin Edwards, who I've been crushing pretty hard on since he first broke out against the Nets back in early January. He'd been generally effective in the months since, but he did a little shuffling in and out of the lineup as the Sixers briefly flirted with being a real basketball team. and was often ignored in the offense as the team prioritized its many veteran options who were actually supposed to be good.

But now, as he's flanked by a bunch of fringe rotation guys and 2K create-a-players, it's Edwards' time to shine -- and he's posting numbers worthy of building a proper agenda around. Over the last two weeks (nine games), he's averaging 19 points a game on 50% from the field and 46% from three, with more total steals (14) than turnovers (12). He probably hasn't played enough games (40 with just eight to go) to be eligible for All-Rookie distinctions, but he'd certainly deserve it; he's currently one of just six rookies to play at least 20 games who's averaging double-digits in scoring on the season (10.6), and he has the highest field goal percentage (47%) of all of them.

And when I watch him play, I see what I wanted to see from Paul George.

Not to say that I really hated Paul George in his first and perhaps only season with the Sixers. I expected to hate him, and I'm kinda surprised I didn't hate him more, but with everything that went wrong with the Sixers this year I just couldn't draw up much ire for his floor-raising solidness. Still, if there was one thing about PG that did really frustrate me, it was how slow and deliberate everything felt with him -- nothing was ever quick, nothing was ever explosive, nothing ever felt particularly decisive. Not shocking for a guy who's only a presidential term younger than I am, but you don't always appreciate how much age stuff really matters with a player like Paul George until you watch him every day and wonder why you never see him get any particularly easy buckets.

And a lot of Justin Edwards' effectiveness is very Paul George-esque. He's got the size, the length and the hands to be a real disruptor on defense, and he's got the confidence and stroke to be a major weapon from deep. But when Justin Edwards attacks, he ATTACKS. He bursts to the rim with enough speed and force that the verb "burst" actually feels appropriate. He gets by dudes. He creates advantages. He dunks. He looks smooth and sharp and not the least bit creaky. He looks like Paul George looked at the beginning.

Am I saying he's going to be as good as Paul George was? I would certainly enjoy saying that, and I'd probably believe it on some level. But I suppose if you were asking me to bet an over/under on one top-three MVP finish for Justin Edwards, I would likely take the under. I am saying that I do think he'll be as good as Paul George is, and probably better, and probably soon. George is still obviously a better bucket-getter and a better play-maker than Edwards, and a better all-around defender. Not by, like, a lot -- if George was really still elite at any or all of those things, he'd have averaged better than 16 points a game on 43% shooting this year, and the Sixers wouldn't have lost the overwhelming majority of games that he played in. But you can still (mostly, sorta) rely on George to make the right pass or back down a defender for a bucket or help finish off a defensive possession in ways you can't yet from Edwards.

Edwards is showing real flashes of being more than just a three-and-D athlete, though. Sunday night against the Heat, while Edwards was dribbling at the top of the key, Grimes faked a drift to the corner and then cut past his defender to the basket, and Edwards threaded a beautiful bounce-pass to him for an easy bucket. And his two-point shooting is surprisingly encouraging -- he smokes the occasional layup, as he is still indeed a Sixer, but I can't believe how many times in the past few weeks he's been able to stop-and-pop for a short 10-foot pull-up, the kind of shot that feels like it should be among the easiest in basketball but that the Covingtons and Meltons of the world always seem to approach like a three-quarters-court hook shot for some reason. He seems smart, he seems competent, he seems effective -- and he seems like he fits in any lineup anywhere.

Save The Date

That last part is why I've been more excited about him nearly all season than someone like Grimes, and especially like Guerschon Yabusele. Will there be room on the Sixers for another score-first guard to be properly effective once Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain are back and in full effect? Will there ever be a real role in a playoff rotation for an undersized backup center who can't protect the rim? Possibly, but not definitely. But there will always be room on the Sixers, or any other team, for someone like Edwards -- a long, athletic floor-stretcher and defensive switcher who makes the right play and doesn't need the ball. Maybe he develops into something more and maybe he doesn't, but he can play for 10-15 years just doing the things he already does well and still be of obvious use to any good team.

Am I getting way too excited about the breakout of a guy who's been playing on a fake NBA team for the past month and who's only played in 11 wins total in his NBA career? Of course! This is all probably going to look absolutely ridiculous in a year, if not far sooner. But what is this part of the tanking season for if not for getting way too excited about the handful of actually encouraging things you're seeing from the guys on the court -- projecting the number of future All-Star appearances from Tony Wroten, or handing out five-year, $50 million contracts to KJ McDaniels (offer still stands KJ!!)? I don't care. At the moment I am convinced that we'll get way more out of 22-year-old Justin Edwards and his $2 million player option than 35-year-old Paul George and his $52 million price tag next year and you cannot talk me out of it. Even if it turns out to be cartoonishly wrong, it's enough to get me through the rest of this Severance field trip of an NBA season, and to the point when hopefully we have a real-enough team again that I can worry about things more important than our undrafted rookie's All-NBA potential.

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Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.

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