July 03, 2024
Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports
The Sixers hope to see Ricky Council IV stand out in this month's Summer League.
The Sixers announced their roster for the 2024 Salt Lake City and Las Vegas Summer League on Wednesday morning, and it is likely the most interesting collection of players the team has put together for the event in quite a few years:
The Sixers’ Summer League roster is pretty intriguing pic.twitter.com/v9itT8GbrP
— Adam Aaronson (@SixersAdam) July 3, 2024
A quick rundown of some of the standouts from the team...
• Jeff Dowtin Jr. spent the end of the season on a two-way deal with the Sixers before being converted to a standard NBA contract before the NBA Playoffs began. The team declined an option for his deal that would carry into next season, despite his salary being non-guaranteed. The 6-foot-3 guard will play with the Sixers in Salt Lake City, but not Las Vegas.
• Ricky Council IV went undrafted last year, signed a two-way contract with the Sixers and continued to impress with his outstanding athletic tools and impressive finishing and rebounding abilities. He earned a long-term NBA deal near the end of the regular season and has a very real chance at cracking the rotation in 2024-25. Looking like a man amongst boys in this setting would help his stock.
• David Jones is an undrafted free agent who the Sixers signed to a two-way contract soon after the 2024 NBA Draft concluded. A wing prospect, Jones made a massive leap in his lone season at Memphis, blossoming from an inefficient, high-volume shot-taker to one of the best scorers in the nation.
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• Justin Edwards was the first undrafted free agent the Sixers signed to a two-way contract following the draft, a Philadelphia native who went to Kentucky as a five-star recruit and had a tough year that led to him being a projected second-round pick. He did not get selected at all, ultimately, and the Sixers scooped him up on a two-way deal, betting on the talent that made him such a highly-regarded high school player.
• Jared McCain was the Sixers' No. 16 overall pick last week, a fantastic shooter at the guard position out of Duke who figures to at the very least be a useful role player during his time in the NBA. In this environment, the Sixers would love to see McCain flash the ability to create shots for others — he averaged below two assists per game in college — and be disruptive as an aggressive point-of-attack defender.
• R.J. Hampton was a first-round pick of the Denver Nuggets in 2020 NBA Draft, and had a promising start to his rookie season before being dealt to the Orlando Magic as part of a package that netted Denver Aaron Gordon. Things got a bit rocky for him in Orlando, in part due to performance and in part due to a crowded guard rotation. He played in 21 games for the Detroit Pistons in 2022-23 and in eight games for the Miami Heat in 2023-24.
• Adem Bona was the Sixers' No. 41 overall selection last Thursday, a supreme athlete with endless energy who was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in his sophomore season at UCLA. With Paul Reed likely on his way out, the Sixers could use another depth center on their roster, and so it appears Bona will receive a standard NBA deal at some point.
• Tony Bradley, a first-round pick in 2017, spent some time with the Sixers as a depth center during the 2020-21 season before being traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was one of a handful of veterans to work out with the Sixers a few weeks back. Bradley last was on an NBA roster in 2022-23, when played for the Chicago Bulls.
• Romeo Langford was the No. 14 overall pick of the Boston Celtics in 2018 — chosen with the first-round pick the Sixers gave Boston to move up from No. 3 to No. 1 the year prior, setting the table for the Sixers to draft Markelle Fultz and the Celtics to draft Jayson Tatum — but has failed to catch on in a consistent NBA role. Langford was part of the trade package the Celtics sent to the San Antonio Spurs for Derrick White. Langford played 13 games in the NBA G League in 2023-24.
• Max Fiedler is a big from Rice with a unique statistical profile who the Sixers signed to an Exhibit-10 contract (E-10 deals are training camp contracts that give players a signing bonus if they eventually report to that team's G League affiliate). Fiedler, standing at 6-foot-10, took just 6.3 field goal attempts per game in 2023-24 despite playing nearly 30 minutes per game, but also averaged 5.3 assists per game.
• Judah Mintz, a 6-foot-3 guard who spent two year at Syracuse, was one of the more surprising players to go undrafted last week. Mintz is essentially a non-shooter from beyond the arc at the guard position and played an extremely high-usage role, which typically does not translate well to the pros. But Mintz has perfected the art of getting the line, averaging 8.3 free throw attempts per game in his sophomore season. The Sixers have one two-way contract spot available; if anybody from this roster was to get that spot, Mintz might be the front-runner.
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