Paul George landed at No. 69 on our preseason NBA99, ranking the 99 best players in the NBA as the 2026-27 season begins. VJ Edgecombe was one spot behind him, at No. 70. Check out the rest of the list here.
In the first edition of FanSided's NBA99 for the 2026-27 season, a pair of former teammates were right next to one another in the rankings. Boston Celtics forward Paul George landed at No. 69 overall (nice), while Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe came in at No. 70.
Thankfully, Sixers fans should be too busy enjoying their season-opening win over the reigning-champion New York Knicks — and George and the Celtics blowing a 20-plus-point second-half lead to the Detroit Pistons — to get too up-in-arms about Edgecombe being ranked behind George. But anyone who might be outraged by Edgecombe landing one spot behind George should remember what this exercise endeavors to accomplish.
The rankings "included blended assessments of both present and future value" and do "not consider any information about salary or contract status." We were not ranking which player you'd prefer moving forward; we ranked which player is better right now.
With that in mind, it's hard to argue Edgecombe deserves to be ranked higher than George … for now, anyway.
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Valuing now vs. later
In George's regular-season debut with the Celtics, he finished with a team-high 38 points on 12-of-21 shooting (including 7-of-12 from deep), five rebounds, five steals and three assists in only 31 minutes. The Celtics didn't pull out the win, but that's mostly because Jayson Tatum was doing his best Kobe homage by shooting tour dates (6-of-23).
Edgecombe was far quieter in his season opener, finishing with only nine points on 4-of-10 shooting (0-of-3 from deep), four rebounds, one assist and one steal in 35 minutes. His primary responsibility was hounding Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, the reigning Finals MVP, while his star teammates shouldered most of the offensive load.
We're only working with a one-game sample size here, but their production in their season openers very well could be reflective of their respective roles this season.
After the Celtics out Jaylen Brown for George this offseason, George is now the clear No. 2 option in Boston this season. (Apologies to Payton "Jalen Brunson 2.0" Pritchard.) He also should be a glove-like fit in Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla's system thanks to his three-point shooting ability. George won't shoot 7-of-12 from deep every night, but he's a career 38.4% long-range shooter on high volume. He's going to be one of Boston's top floor-spacers this season.
The question with George is what else he can still bring to the table—and how long he's able to sustain it.
The 36-year-old's days of being a No. 1 option are long in the past. At the end of last season, he said his biggest offseason challenge was trying to see whether he could regain some of his explosiveness, because he felt "like that wasn't there this year."
George drew eight free-throw attempts against Detroit, which was tied with Pritchard for the team lead. But he did a majority of his damage in the season opener either behind the three-point line, at the charity stripe or in transition. He isn't going to put his head down and repeatedly drive to the basket like Brown.
After the season opener, George told reporters that his legs were "just heavy" and he "was winded a lot of times" during training camp, which was "taking away the ability to kind of do things when I just felt a little heavy and sluggish." But he added that he's getting his wind and legs back, and he felt like he's "getting my pop back," which was "kind of the difference-maker" against Detroit.
Again, it's fair to wonder how sustainable that is over the course of the 82-game regular season. After he returned from his 25-game suspension late last year, he told reporters that he was "in a much better place physically" because the suspension was "just what I needed, I think, for my body to kind of heal and be in a better place."
But at least for one game, George resembled his former All-Star self and then some.
While George has already passed the peak of his NBA powers and is battling with Father Time, Edgecombe's arrow is pointing straight up. It's not a question of if Edgecombe will become an NBA star, but when.
It just might not happen this season thanks to the collection of talent surrounding him.
Being flanked by Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid and LeBron James has its benefits. When the Sixers' starting five is all healthy, no one player should have to shoulder too much of the offensive load. All five of them are talented enough to mismatch-hunt, as long as they all continue to sacrifice and share the ball. But when all five are healthy, Edgecombe appears poised to take a back seat offensively.
Granted, there will be plenty of nights throughout the regular season where Embiid or LeBron sit out. In those games, the Sixers will rely more on Edgecombe on both ends of the floor. And even during the full-strength games, his speed and explosiveness will make him lethal in transition, which is a priority for the Sixers to exploit.
In a year or two, Edgecombe and George might have flipped places in these rankings. Perhaps it doesn't even take that long. But these are meant to be a snapshot of time at the beginning of the 2026-27 season.
While Edgecombe and George are on opposite trajectories at this point of their respective careers, the precocious second-year player hasn't passed the wily veteran quite yet.
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