NBA scout compares Tyrese Maxey-VJ Edgecombe duo to the Splash Brothers: "A fun place for the 76ers to start"

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After a scorching 4-0 start, the Philadelphia 76ers are now sitting at 9–8, a record many see as far more realistic given that Joel Embiid and Paul George have combined for only nine appearances, while Kelly Oubre Jr., who opened the season strong, is also sidelined.

On the flip side, Tyrese Maxey continues playing at an MVP level. He's currently the league's third-leading scorer at 32.2 points per game, trailing only Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a clear testament to the Kentucky product's rise.

But while VJ Edgecombe is also out with a calf strain, it seems injuries might shape the Sixers' season once again.

Still, the potential of this backcourt duo is enormous and early signs of something big are already showing. That prompted ESPN's Tim Bontemps to speak with several anonymous scouts about the future of the franchise.

"Another scout compared Edgecombe's fit alongside Maxey to the one the Golden State Warriors enjoyed with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. And while they cautioned not to expect the same path as the one blazed by the two future Hall of Famers with four championships together, the idea of an explosive lead scorer next to an elite two-way sidekick is a fun place for the 76ers to start", Bontemps wrote in his piece for ESPN.

"'Those guys are pretty good together,' a West scout said. 'They work well together because they can both do a bit of everything,'" he stated.

GSW could become the blueprint for the Sixers

Of course, it makes no sense to get ahead of ourselves and place that type of burden on two players who are still far too young to be projected to those heights. But at the same time, Philadelphia's front office, after 10 years of building around Embiid, may soon have to consider a different direction.

After only six games, the 7-foot Cameroonian center is again sidelined with a knee issue. Even when he did play, he looked far from the dominant MVP-level force he once was, which naturally raises the question of whether the Sixers should trade the 31-year-old while he still holds significant value.

If we draw a parallel with the Golden State Warriors, when Steve Kerr took over from Mark Jackson, he had to make several key decisions. Kerr had a clear vision of how he wanted to play with the "Splash Brothers", and to execute that, he minimized David Lee's role, who, after the first title run, left the team.

The season before the championship, Lee was still highly productive, and we're still talking about a two-time All-Star at the time. He wasn't Embiid-level dominant, of course, but he simply didn't fit the pace-and-space system Kerr wanted. Lee went from a 20–10 machine on any given night to a role player, and the decision to hand the franchise fully to Stephen Curry became one of the best moves in basketball history.

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The Sixers are playing much faster without Embiid

Although under Jackson, GSW played fast, ranking sixth in pace at 96.3 possessions per game in 2013–14, under Kerr, they immediately became the fastest team in the league at 98.27.

Looking at Nick Nurse's roster, the sample size is still small and injuries haven't allowed any lineup to play more than 39 minutes together, but the two fastest lineups this season are the ones without Embiid and in both of them.

That leads to the conclusion that while lineups with Maxey and Edgecombe may be defensively vulnerable, they are also the Sixers' most productive offensively. Together, they've logged 445 minutes, more than any other duo on the roster, and with a 120.7 offensive rating, they rank first among all duos across the league that have played at least 440 minutes together, according to NBA.com.

Obviously, if this team were fully healthy with George, Embiid and Oubre, things would look far cleaner on both sides of the floor, but the ongoing injury saga of Embiid and George has lasted far too long, which inevitably brings up the question – at what point will the front office need to make a radical decision and commit to building around the backcourt duo?

A duo that, just like Steph and Klay, didn't enter the league with huge expectations, but once they earned trust, they took off and never looked back.

Related: Charles Barkley expresses concern for the Philadelphia 76ers despite good start: "They aren't going anywhere without Joel Embiid"

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Nov 28, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.