With the 2024-25 Sixers season officially in the rearview mirror, the time has come to evaluate the few highs and many lows of a disastrous campaign in which the team only managed 24 wins. We will do so in "Sixers year-in-review," a series assessing each individual Sixers player's performance this year based on numbers, film and quotes, while also looking ahead to the future.
Up next: Ricky Council IV.
After a promising rookie campaign which earned him a conversion from a two-way contract to a standard deal after going undrafted, Council entered his season NBA season with many expecting him to burgeon as a quality rotation piece for the Sixers.
Instead, Council's worst traits were highlighted in a long season, while he seemed incapable of providing the sort of spark that he often gave as a rookie. Council's stock dropped about as much as it could have plummeted in a single year, and now his future with the franchise could be uncertain.
SIXERS YEAR-IN-REVIEW
Joel Embiid | Guerschon Yabusele | Paul George | Jared McCain | Tyrese Maxey | Andre Drummond | Quentin Grimes | Jared Butler | Kyle Lowry | Kelly Oubre Jr. | Justin Edwards
What we learned in 2024-25
Council still does not have the trust of his coaching staff.
At no point during this season did it seem like the Sixers were happy with what they were getting from Council — nor did he ever seem satisfied with his opportunities or overall performance. Council's lack of reliability to make the right decisions doomed his chances of earnest any sort of consistent trust from head coach Nick Nurse and the rest of the Sixers' staff. Time and time again, Council was thrown into the action and would hurt his stock with a batch of poor judgments that did not jive with the team's points of emphasis.
An example: a January game in Denver in which the Sixers were completely sputtering. Council came in for the fourth quarter and had total tunnel vision, making one shot, missing a pair of decent looks and then forcing up dreadful shots over and over. It certainly appeared to upset Nurse, who removed Council from the rotation entirely in the team's next game.
Ricky Council IV attempted eight shots in the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night. He made the first shot, an assisted corner three, and missed the next seven: pic.twitter.com/eOPLMeMung
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 23, 2025
Perhaps this is a chicken and egg sort of issue: the Sixers did not trust Council enough to play him major minutes because of his questionable decision-making; Council found himself pressing when he was thrust into the action because he felt he needed to stand out in limited chances. But even then, Council has never been a reliable decision-maker on either end of the floor and has not done enough to mollify his significant weaknesses.
Number to know
Council's three-point percentage in 2024-25: 25.8 percent.
Speaking of those flaws, Council is just not a good three-point shooter at all — he is not accurate and his wonky mechanics limit the shots he is capable of getting off — and Council's efficiency marks from beyond the arc are harmed even more by the consistent difficulty of the shots does find himself capable of firing away:
Ricky Council IV catches the ball several steps beyond the three-point line with five seconds left on the shot clock. He somehow ends up going straight into a step-back three-point attempt, which airballs: pic.twitter.com/SgYeTFlE2J
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 13, 2025
Council is not a force as an on-ball scorer; his main utility as a scorer is grabbing a rebound and beating the defense down the court in transition for a layup or dunk. He is not a playmaker, though he did have a few interesting performances later in the season that included some nifty assists. If he is not an on-ball scorer or a playmaker and he is a poor three-point shooter, it is just hard to see him becoming a quality rotation wing in the NBA.
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Important film
And yet, whenever someone is ready to be divested of their Council stock, he submits a jaw-dropping performance filled with plays most players could never even dream of pulling off. For the second season in a row, Council's best game of the year came in San Antonio, where on March 21 he scored 20 points on only nine shot attempts while grabbing eight rebounds:
Ricky Council IV played his best game of the season on Friday night in San Antonio:
20 points
6-9 FG
3-5 3P
5-6 FT
8 rebounds
Council played just over 24 minutes in the Sixers' loss to the Spurs. pic.twitter.com/vM9MLv5gSl— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 22, 2025
These performances from Council have been tantalizing, but they have just as much been fleeting. How much can three or four standout showings across an 82-game season actually mean?
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Salient soundbite
Nurse in March on Council's season-long struggles:
"Ricky's just… we just want Ricky to play a little better. He's just got to play a little bit more physical defense, rebounding — he's a great athlete. I know he's only 6-foot-4, but we need help on the glass. He's got to provide some of that. Got to provide some help at the defensive end as well."
Question heading into the future
Is it worth it for the Sixers to use the necessary time, resources and roster spot to keep trying to develop Council?
Council's team-friendly contract does not include any guaranteed money for two more years — each of his salaries become guaranteed about midway through the season. With Nurse and his staff returning without much reason to trust Council — and a player like Justin Edwards supplanting Council as a young wing whose development is a far grater priority — is it even a given that Council will be on the roster next season?
Maybe there is another team out there willing to trade a second-round pick to give Council a change of scenery that very well could benefit him — and maybe the Sixers would entertain such an offer at this point. If not, would they just waive him and move on, giving themselves an open roster spot and giving Council a chance at a fresh start?
The odds are probably in favor of Council being on the team when next season begins, but it no longer feels like a certainty whatsoever.
Contract information
Council has two years remaining on his contract, but each season's salary does not become guaranteed until Jan. 10 of that season. He is at right about the equivalent of the veteran's minimum salary.
• 2025-26: $2,221,677
• 2026-27: $2,406,205 (team option)
MORE: Free agents Sixers should monitor in offseason
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