November 18, 2024
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Ricky Council IV's sophomore season in the NBA has been tough sledding through a dozen games.
Happy Monday! The Sixers hope that this week will be the start of a turnaround following a dreadful 2-10 start to the 2024-25.
As always, let's kick off the week with another edition of 5 Sixers thoughts:
Many had extreme optimism for the Sixers' high-flying wing entering his second NBA season, but it has been a tough go for Council so far in 2024-25, who has yet to receive consistent rotation minutes and struggled mightily to impact games in spot minutes the way he did as a rookie.
Ricky Council IV has missed his last 11 shots, spanning four-plus games / ~30:00.
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 17, 2024
Council has attempted two free throws during this period, his only two free throws of 2024-25 since attempting four on opening night.
Council's FTA per 100 possessions:
2023-24: 12.1
2024-25: 4.6 pic.twitter.com/y5TaEWEia2
What made Council special as an undrafted rookie — his ability to change the complexion of a game when necessary, even if he had not yet been on the floor that night, and his terrific foul-drawing chops, have not been on display whatsoever to start the year. Of course, we are only a dozen games into the season, so it is far too early to rule out a Council breakthrough. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine Council becoming a rotation regular at any point soon, especially as rookie Jared McCain has quickly worked from fringe rotation status all the way up to Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's starting lineup.
Also serving as a roadblock for Council right now is Guerschon Yabusele, who has thrived as a small-ball five in many of his minutes but Nurse wants to give an extended look at power forward. Even KJ Martin, who had a fairly strong start to the season, is on the outside looking in right now.
It is clear watching Council over the last handful of games that he is pressing — and that is totally understandable. The natural human reaction as a player if you are only given sporadic minutes is to try to impress every time you see the floor. Sometimes, though, that mentality becomes counterproductive.
Someone does not need to watch every minute of Council's rookie season to understand where the upside and appeal exist. Now, the challenge for Council and the Sixers is figuring out how to tap into his outlier skills and tools more often, while avoiding his lulls where he fails to leave any sort of positive mark on a game.
The Sixers' signing of Drummond to a two-year, $10 million contract (with a player option in the second season) to stabilize the team's backup center spot was nearly universally supported, but it has simply not panned out to date: Drummond is not playing good basketball and the Sixers are getting throughly outplayed on both ends of the floor when he is in games.
Offensive Rating (points scored per 100 possessions), Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) and Net Rating (ORtg-DRtg) of each Sixers player with at least 180 total minutes in 2024-25: pic.twitter.com/vBx00LaBEu
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) November 18, 2024
Players like Drummond often struggle to extrapolate excellent per-minute statistics into larger roles; if he was capable of being one of the best players in the NBA on a per-minute basis someone would just have him do it. But his numbers have dropped significantly this season, and it has happened nearly across the board.
A look at Drummond's per-minute stats in 2024-25 and how they stack up relative to the numbers he has posted in his 13-year NBA career:
| Stat | 2024-25 per 36 min | Rank of 13 NBA seasons |
| Points | 13.2 | 13th |
| Rebounds | 14.7 | 12th |
| Assists | 0.7 | 12th |
| Blocks | 0.7 | 13th |
| Fouls | 4.8 | 11th |
| Turnovers | 2.9 | 10th |
This does not paint a pretty picture whatsoever. The one area where Drummond has improved, predictably, is forcing turnovers. He is averaging two steals per 36 minutes, the second-highest figure of his career, as the Sixers continue to embrace "The Ball Wins," their motto emphasizing the importance of generating extra possessions by forcing turnovers and crashing the offensive glass.
Drummond was sidelined against the Cavaliers due to an illness, and when the Sixers faced the Orlando Magic on Friday he was a game-time decision with the same designation. He was ultimately made active for the game, but Yabusele — once thought to be a temporary solution at center — played over him. Drummond checked in during the second quarter and played for nearly four minutes before returning to the bench — where he spent the remainder of the game.
Was this a product of his illness or his play? Time will tell.
MORE: Sixers 86, Magic 98
When Drummond missed the Cleveland game and Joel Embiid was also sidelined, Nurse called upon the rookie second-round pick Adem Bona to serve as his backup center for the night. Bona, who was largely viewed as a long-term project more than someone who could contribute consistently as a rookie, was always going to have to play at some point in 2024-25.
In just over 17 minutes, Bona scored four points, grabbed nine rebounds (three offensive) and blocked a shot. He did not look out of place whatsoever.
"He did great," Nurse said. "I thought he was lively, and didn't really make many mistakes. That's always a big first starting point: don't do things that are going to hurt us."
Sitting at his locker after the game, Bona expressed appreciation for the chance to see extended action for the first time in his NBA career.
"It felt great," Bona said after the game. "It felt amazing having the opportunity to do what I do out there. The coaches trusted me putting me in the game."
Bona's close friend McCain was thrilled to share the floor with his draft classmate.
"It's super cool just to be with him," fellow rookie Jared McCain said. "When he goes out there, he plays super hard... It's cool to just go out there and play as hard as [you] can with somebody who you admire, who you take as a friend — family."
MORE: McCain earning 'pretty high-level respect'
Once in a while, I will provide reminders of the current standings of the Sixers' three two-way players. For those in need of a reminder, two-way players are eligible to be active for up to 50 NBA games during a season. Here is where Jeff Dowtin Jr., Lester Quinones and Justin Edwards stand entering this week:
| Player | NBA days used | NBA days remaining |
| Jeff Dowtin Jr. | 8 | 42 |
| Lester Quinones | 4 | 46 |
| Justin Edwards | 4 | 46 |
Dowtin is clearly the one to watch here; the steady point guard is firmly in the mix for rotation minutes with Tyrese Maxey sidelined and could even make a push for minutes after Maxey's return if Nurse's other reserve guards continue to struggle. Quinones and Edwards will likely not factor into Nurse's plans at any point in the near future.
With the Sixers in Miami to face the Heat on Monday night, it's as good of a time as ever to make this point: last year, the Heat and Charlotte Hornets made a trade that yielded the Sixers two starters.
Before last season's trade deadline, Miami was looking for a scoring punch. They traded the expiring contract of Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick to Charlotte for Terry Rozier, a stronger on-ball threat with multiple years left on his deal. Charlotte went on to buy out Lowry, paving the way for the veteran floor general to sign with his hometown team, finishing the 2023-24 season with the Sixers and quickly becoming their starting shooting guard.
Last summer, Miami was forced to navigate a difficult dilemma. Caleb Martin, a player they had developed into a quality two-way wing, was entering free agency, and because they had added Rozier's salary of nearly $25 million to their 2024-25 cap sheet in place of Lowry — who went on to re-sign with the Sixers on a veteran's minimum contract — they would need to enter the NBA's punitive second apron in order to bring Martin back.
That led to the tough-minded wing testing the market, seeing that market dry up and inking a four-year, $35 million deal with the Sixers to start on the wing — a contract that was well below his genuine value. Even as Martin has undergone a shaky start to the season, the Sixers would sign Martin to his deal again 10 times out of 10.
And none of it would have happened if not for a trade that the Sixers were not even involved in.
MORE: Previewing Sixers-Heat
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