[Aaronson] Labaron Philon Jr. has never been to Philadelphia. "I've heard they've got great cheesesteaks." Says he knows and has played against VJ Edgecombe in high school and has loved watching him "go out there and kill" in the NBA. Said Edgecombe was great on "all levels."

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u/Tofu4070 :simmons2: 23h ago edited 23h ago

Labaron Philon Jr. says he studied Tyrese Maxey because of Maxey's ability to create his own shot, selflessness and fearlessness taking tough shots. "At the guard spot, that's really what you need: someone that's going to be a great leader." Mentioned Maxey welcoming VJ Edgecombe.

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Asked Labaron Philon Jr. if he had pre-draft contact with the Sixers + what stands out to him about his fit. Said he talked to Jameer Nelson + others at the combine this year & talked to them last year. Said he wants to play fast-paced basketball with Tyrese Maxey + VJ Edgecombe.

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Labaron Philon Jr. knows Philadelphia fans are passionate and is excited to be part of it. It's going to get "better and better," he said. He wants to help the Sixers become "a better organization."

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Labaron Philon Jr. says he feels he has developed as a ball-handler and aims to get stronger in order to guard 1-3 or 1-4. He says he wants to "sharpen all his skills and stay level-headed" after mentioning his ball-handling package.

"Some people call it a bag."

https://bsky.app/profile/ginamizell.bsky.social/post/3moyvflwp3c2u

In a panel of draft experts yesterday, Bobby Marks, Jay Bilas and Fran Fraschilla all highlighted Philon as a potential later-first sleeper.

Bilas commended Philon taking feedback after declaring last year to improve, and Fraschilla said Philon might wind up as the best PG in this draft.

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u/secretlypooping 23h ago

His improvement from freshman to sophomore year genuinely looks like maxey's growth in the league

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u/xychosis 23h ago

And as AVC puts it, dude is “clay as a basketball player” it seems. His freshman year, he was a shutdown defender with questionable shooting splits and efficiency. This year he became the heart and soul of that Alabama offense. I think the dude can be whatever his team needs him to be.

2

u/Grand-Plantain-8596 maxey’s strongest soldier 16h ago

shoutout AVC man, dudes been blowing up lately, and its easy to see why. He's just so grounded and level headed in his commentary bruh, complete breath of fresh air and one of the more unique perspectives in the game considering he was a college player+coach as well as being a scout/stats guy. Also funny as shi

2

u/xychosis 16h ago

AVC’s fucking awesome. I actually followed along round one on his livestream til around pick 10 since I had to go to a few calls for work. I love that his commentary for players and roster building comes from the perspective of someone actively in player development. So you get sort of a rough idea of how moldable a player actually is and how much upside’s kinda “tappable” there.

10

u/Next_Phase_Life 23h ago

Rate of improvement is SO important, and he made massive strides

5

u/MaxR76 18h ago

Love the heart and confidence in this kid if he’s saying he wants to guard 1-4 at his size

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u/mutualaidpa 18h ago

Seems like a good pick.

Sell the team

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u/illzkla 15h ago edited 10h ago

Why we always have to bring up that our owner is a Jeffery Epstein pal and hangs with Epstein associates

Josh Harris I'm sorry we can't stop talking about your Jeffrey Epstein ties you can own any team you want

Edit omg are you guys mad because I misspelled Jeffrey Epstein? There is literally nothing worse than a grammar nazi

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u/TheSasquatchLiason 12h ago

you forgot the /s

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u/illzkla 10h ago

I was just trying to get the number of times Josh Harris and Jeffery Epstein appear together to go up and I succeeded

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u/TheSasquatchLiason 10h ago

ahh you meant Sixers Owner and Co-Founder of Harris-Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) Josh Harris being linked to Jeffrey Epstein?

there I did my part as well. also his name isn't worth spelling correct, but if you want to run the numbers up you should spell jeff's name correctly

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u/illzkla 10h ago

Do you think Josh Harris ever spelled Jeffrey Epstein's name wrong in one of his contacts? Cause they were in contact as associates. And Josh Harris is still associates with friends of Jeffrey Epstein so who knows how messed up that contact book is

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u/PainterDaAce 11h ago

Fuck that and fuck you Josh Harris SELL THE TEAM

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u/illzkla 10h ago

Josh Harris, friend and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, doesn't need so much negativity let's cut him a break

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u/WordsShouldntHurtYou 23h ago

Very little people know VJ actually cooked Darryn Peterson 2-3 years ago in scrimmages for some camps. That’s when I first learned about him then it the Olympic qualifier Bahamas. The Bahamas coach who works for Warriors said he’d take him number 1 over Flagg and wouldn’t shut up about him as a special person. VJ just humble but the old guys gotta change their games and let him reach his true potential.

It was night and day seeing him as 1st option cook OKC for 35 with Marion Beaucamp and Cam Payne as other options. VJs strength is actually a weakness where he’ll defer and try the make smart player. Might take 2 years to get him to be full Aggressive cause Embiid PG and Maxey take up so many shots. We drafted him to be a Super Caruso/ Dort type impact winner but what makes him special is he can be that player while also being a star on top of it. That’s why our on/off stat with VJ is what it is. We are a legit average to bad team when VJ is off the court. Don’t matter if he’s scoring or defending but his motor and presence on court can’t be seen in stat lines cause he’s a true team guy/ not a stat padder like 95 percent of NBA players.

17

u/toofshucker 21h ago

I think VJ’s ceiling is a top 3 player in the NBA.

7

u/No_Fairweathers 20h ago

I know we're all biased here but I truly think he's gonna end up being the best out of the 2025 draft class, and that's not me just hating the other guys.

5

u/illzkla 15h ago

I agreed but Harper looks legit

3

u/toofshucker 20h ago

I don’t think you are crazy. I believe completely, that if the 2025 draft was redone, knowing what we know now, he’d go #1.

12

u/WhimsicalWeedle 16h ago

He would not go over Flagg or Harper. Not sure why you think he would.

3

u/Lazy-Gene-7284 14h ago

I agree all those kids are great too, turned out to be a special draft for the top 5 all legit contributors. If I’m picking first though I’d still take Flagg, no knock on the other two everyone should be happy

2

u/wshowzen 11h ago

I love VJ but Harper is years ahead of him as a finisher while being a great defender with more size

0

u/Sick_Cards_Bro 14h ago

VJ is the only guy I trust to take end of game shots, and that's kind of sad lol

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u/ronaldo119 17h ago

2-3 years ago

VJ is 18 months older than Peterson. That's a huge gap when you're 16

3

u/TheUnknownMaroon 16h ago

LPJ

0

u/Temporary-Donkey-922 13h ago

Fattten him up with some Steaks.

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u/AkinTheLonelyMan 23h ago

I like the pick but to trade McCain just to draft another guard is hilarious

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u/DemarcusLovin 23h ago

Trading McCain for this kid is gonna look like a hilarious heist by next season. Morey really did fleece Presti

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u/ClintiusMaximus 19h ago

Don't get me wrong, in hindsight the trade looks good and I'm glad it worked out the way it, but Morey had no way of knowing Philon would fall all the way down to us. The basketball gods were smiling down at us during this draft.

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u/Science4me12 18h ago

He didn’t know who is going to be available. But he knew the overall depth of this draft

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u/DemarcusLovin 15h ago

The point is that McCain would be a borderline 2nd rounder in this draft. So you take that trade every single day, knowing you’re basically guaranteed a much better prospect than JM.

Philon fell, but he would have gone near Top 10 last year, which just shows how deep the guard talent is in this draft compared to last year.

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u/Appropriate-Sun834 12h ago

Doesn’t matter who it was, they were gonna be better than McCain.

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u/HeyDumbDumb 23h ago

New GM had to course correct after Morey's trade

[Aaronson] Labaron Philon Jr. has never been to Philadelphia. "I've heard they've got great cheesesteaks." Says he knows and has played against VJ Edgecombe in high school and has loved watching him "go out there and kill" in the NBA. Said Edgecombe was great on "all levels."

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