Justin Edwards Has Embraced His Role as the Sixers' 3-and-D Wing
Hang the banner for the Sixers’ 2024 Draft Class.
Below are the statistical profiles of two different rookies just over halfway through the season:
Rookie A — 32 games played, 3.2 Points Per Game, 27.4% 3PT Shooting, 40.7 TS%
Rookie B — 17 games played, 7.2 Points Per Game, 32.8% 3PT Shooting, 56.6 TS%
Rookie A is Reed Sheppard, who was picked third overall by the Houston Rockets in the 2024 NBA Draft following one of the most remarkable shooting seasons in college basketball history. Rookie B? That would be his undrafted Kentucky teammate Justin Edwards, who has emerged this past month as one of the most uplifting stories from an otherwise disappointing Sixers season.
This isn’t meant to drag Sheppard, a young player who likely still has a bright future ahead of him, but to highlight how sharply things have turned for Edwards this past month. The lefty forward was a projected top draft pick on many a mainstream draft board back in November of 2023, but quickly saw his stock fall as he produced decent-but-not-remarkable numbers in his freshman season (8.8 PTS/G on 58.2 TS%), all while Sheppard’s 52% three-point shooting and savvy playmaking saw him fly up the boards.
The Sixers bought the dip on Edwards, signing him as an undrafted free agent after the 2024 Draft concluded. Not even 20 games into his career, the move already looks like an incredible investment.
To understand how this happened, you have to understand just how much Edwards has changed his game in the past two years. Twenty months ago, while starring at Imhotep Charter and winning back-to-back state titles, he was free to commandeer the offense and create off the bounce whenever he wanted to. That’s the case for most high schoolers talented enough to one day make the NBA, and it was especially so for Edwards. He was tall enough to shoot comfortably over just about any defender the PIAA could throw at him.
However, it became clear that the two-point dominance Edwards enjoyed at the HS level wouldn’t maintain at Kentucky. Faced with better athletes on defense, Edwards could no longer bowl weaker players over on his forays to the rim, nor could he easily find space for mid-range shots like he had in the past. His game had to start trending further toward the three-point line.
It’s at least the instruction the Sixers gave him heading into this season: shoot more threes. At Imhotep, three-point attempts made up just 25.6% of Edwards’ shooting profile, according to available Synergy data. At Kentucky, 39% of his shot attempts were threes, and in his brief NBA career, that number has skyrocketed all the way to 57.4%. It’s all a credit to the mindset of Edwards that he so quickly accepted and embraced the 3-and-D lifestyle after not needing to play that way for pretty much his entire basketball career prior.
Watch how shot-ready Edwards is on each one of these plays in the clip below. He’s holding his hands out and up prior to receiving each pass, showing his teammates that he’s hunting out the catch-and-shoot opportunity, ready to rise and fire the moment the ball hits his hands.
Even as Edwards’ three-point accuracy has dipped to below 33%, opponents still defend his shot with great respect due to the lack of hesitation in his attempts. They have to keep closing out because they know he’s at least going to try and make them pay if they don’t. Little normal stuff like that keeps the Sixers’ offense humming and on time, giving someone like Tyrese Maxey a real option for a kickout pass whenever he drives into the paint and collapses the defense.
While Edwards embracing the lower-usage, catch-and-shoot playstyle might have been a tad surprising given his previous opportunities at lower levels, it shouldn’t be that shocking that he was capable of it. His shooting stroke was the most appealing trait of his game come draft time, as he posted a respectable 36.5% clip on 85 three-point attempts at Kentucky.
Rather, it’s his defensive growth that’s been the most eye-opening. While not a liability for the Wildcats on that end of the floor a season ago, defense was not hailed as Edwards’ calling card. That’s immediately flipped in the NBA, as Nick Nurse has routinely entrusted the rookie wing with several difficult assignments on that end of the floor, and he’s routinely answered the call, averaging just under a steal per game. He’s adept at using his 6-foot-10 wingspan both on and off the ball to get deflections, and his knack for playmaking and rotating at just the right moment to force the turnover is unusually great for someone who has played so few games in the Association.
He brings an interesting contrast to Oubre as the team’s other defensively-focused lefty wing. Oubre is unreasonably quick and explosive for someone of his height, frequently allowing him to overwhelm smaller players who are used to having a speed advantage. For Edwards, quickness and vertical burst are two of his more lacking traits, but he makes up for all of that with strength, length and a really sharp basketball mind.
“He’s playing defense. He’s got a good IQ,” Nurse said when asked about the rookie this past week. “He’s playing the game like he’s been around a little bit.”
None of this is particularly glamorous basketball for Edwards, but it doesn’t have to be. “Being in the right spots on both offense and defense” sounds like a boring way to describe a player, but those are quite literally skills that most NBA rookies don’t have. A lot of first-year players don’t look as comfortable as Edwards has simply sliding into the assigned role given to him by his team. It’s why it was pretty easy for Nurse to trust him in such a short time frame. There are very few moments, if any, when you watch a Sixers game and ask, “What is Justin Edwards doing out there?”
Thinking about a day when the 2024-25 Sixers are fully healthy feels like contemplating the future in which we’re terraforming Mars . But should that day ever come, Edwards has certainly done enough to at least battle for a spot in the rotation. You’re always going to need playable wings in the NBA, and through just 17 games, he’s proven he can be one of those for a long time in this league.
Daniel Olinger is a writer for the Rights To Ricky Sanchez, and author of “The Danny” column, even though he refuses to be called that in person. He can be followed on X @dan_olinger.
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