The Sixers are losers of 11 straight games after a narrow defeat at the hands of Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night, but there are numbers that matter a whole lot more than that. In the penultimate Sunday stats of the 2024-25 Sixers season, let's dive into some figures that tell the story of the state of the team:
2:39
Ricky Council IV's total playing time on Saturday.
Council's inability to earn any sort of trust from his coaches has been one of the more ominous trends of this Sixers season after a rookie campaign in 2023-24 which was tantalizing. Council swung a few games for the Sixers as an undrafted rookie on a two-way deal, but has never been able to find the same spark since being converted to a standard contract about 12 months ago. Nobody doubts Council's jaw-dropping athleticism or ability to make plays most guys are not capable of making, but his reliability as a decision-maker on both ends of the floor has not been good enough all year.
A few ill-advised shots from Ricky Council IV lately: pic.twitter.com/0TPYjqLNGz
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) March 14, 2025
Ironically, Council has a chance to lead the Sixers in total appearances this season, by simple nature of the fact that he has not missed any games due to injuries. But, frankly, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has only been playing Council the minutes he has absolutely needed to play him due to the team's injury-induced devastation.
After weeks and weeks of Council being a shoo-in to log major minutes for a Sixers team comprised of many new faces and players on two-way or 10-day contracts, Nurse had finally seen enough on Saturday. Council only played two minutes and 39 seconds against Minnesota, and based on his response when asked about it after the game, Nurse did not seem to have initially planned to play Council at all.
Council's lone brief stint of action came when Justin Edwards went to the locker room to nurse a rib injury; once Edwards returned to the game in short order Council was back on the bench. Edwards played the remainder of the first half, but was ruled out at halftime. Nurse still opted to go with an eight-man rotation after intermission which included recent 10-day signings Marcus Bagley and Colin Castleton but excluded Council.
"I think it just came down to some other guys playing well when they got their chances," Nurse said.
MORE: Ricky Council IV can decide Sixers fate with strong finish to season
1
The number of times Guerschon Yabusele has not scored in double-figures in his last nine appearances.
Yabusele has not been exactly the same player for the last several weeks, as a knee injury that will not entirely subside and general fatigue have zapped some of his limited explosiveness and made it harder for him to leverage his strength to get to his spots on the floor. The 29-year-old was tailing off in a real way, but has found new life of late.
In a stretch that lasted over a month — from before the All-Star break in February to the middle of March — Yabusele only scored at least 10 points in two out of 12 games, but since that period ended he has done it eight times in nine appearances. He was completely silent on March 29 vs. Miami, scoring just one point in a loss against the Heat. But he has scored 62 points across his other three most recent outings, including a 19-point performance against countryman Rudy Gobert on Saturday. Yabusele has found a way to keep his scoring volume up despite a bit of three-point shooting regression.
Yabusele is now days away from making it through this season healthy and setting himself up for a substantial contract after betting on himself in his return to the NBA. Yabusele waited a half-decade for this and made the most of it in every way.
6.0
Lonnie Walker IV's assists per 100 possessions as a member of the Sixers.
When Walker rejoined the NBA as part of the team nearest to his hometown of Reading, PA, the book on him appeared to be out: he could score — sometimes in bunches — and could provide significant three-point volume. But his ability to help out in other areas of the game was less certain, and in order to prove he did not need to make another trip overseas, Walker had to prove he is capable of being useful in other ways.
Walker has certainly exceeded expectations in Philadelphia, and one of the reasons is his improvement as a facilitator. Whether you look at assists per game, per minute or per possession, Walker is averaging career-highs in dime-dropping with the Sixers:
Adem Bona is making major strides scoring as a roller, which he did on a few occasions vs. Milwaukee on Thursday. The assist from Lonnie Walker IV in the last clip is sweet: pic.twitter.com/HmOMduv63n
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) April 4, 2025
How much of Walker's improvement as a passer stems from his time overseas, where many players — Yabusele included — have said they turned into better ball-movers?
"It was the first time I really had a lot of control as far as bringing the basketball up, running plays, doing pick-and-roll," Walker said earlier this month in New York. "…Making the instinctual, .5 [-second] decision or deciding where to pass it and knowing where your players are, it's definitely something that I improved on."
MORE: Sixers' team/player option predictions: Walker, Kelly Oubre Jr., Eric Gordon, others
88.7 percent
The Sixers' chances of finishing in the No. 5 slot of the NBA Draft Lottery, according to basketball-reference.
There have been many folks in the Sixers world turning their attention to the New Orleans Pelicans, hoping the Pelicans can stumble into a pair of wins that would allow the Sixers to leap even higher in the lottery standings. Basketball-reference performs 10,000 daily simulations of the remainder of the season, and they project as of Sunday morning that the Sixers overtaking New Orleans for the No. 4 slot is extremely unlikely. A reminder of the importance of lottery positioning for the Sixers as it pertains to their top-six protected first-round pick:
| Lottery position | Chance of keeping pick |
| 4 | 81.1% |
| T4, win random drawing | 79.6% |
| T4, lose random drawing | 65.3% |
| 5 | 64.0% |
| T5, win random drawing | 62.2% |
| T5, lose random drawing | 47.7% |
| 6 | 45.8% |
Speaking of that protected pick…
63.4 percent
The Sixers' chances of keeping their top-six protected first-round pick, according to basketball-reference.
If there was any doubt that the Sixers would tank with the necessary intensity to maximize their chances of successfully safeguarding their pick over the last several weeks of the season, they have been completely extinguished. The Sixers have arguably been the most successful tankers in the NBA this season, particularly given the enormous incentive behind their free fall.
The Sixers have won three games in the last two months. Now, only four games remain on their schedule, as a catastrophic season finally nears its conclusion.
MORE: Should Sixers use their first-round pick to dump Paul George's contract?
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