Council, Dowtin, Bona, and Justin Edwards formed the whole Philly bench against the New York Knicks. Edwards stole the headlines but there is a lot to be said about the other three.
As the Philadelphia 76ers’ injury report stays packed, Nick Nurse has had to call on the end of the bench to play real rotation minutes. None of the four Sixers that came off the bench against New York on Wednesday night have played over 75 NBA games. The second-year, 64-game veteran Ricky Council IV is the most experienced. Jeff Dowtin Jr. has played 62 NBA games since debuting in the 2021-22 season. And Adem Bona and Justin Edwards are rookies.
It’s not an ideal situation for a team with championship hopes. But it does mean opportunity for those players. I wrote about how Edwards, the least experienced of this new bench mob, had seized that opportunity, displaying an NBA-ready skillset within just 10 career games. So, today, I want to shine some light on the other three.
Ricky Council IV:
Ricky Council IV is the familiar face of the three. The sophomore Sixer is the team’s most exciting transition player. When he grabs the rebounds and slingshots himself toward the other rim, the crowd turns from a murmur to an anticipative cheer as he reaches the paint, ready for C4 to explode. It’s a thrill every time it happens, even if it leads to nothing.
He is capable of spectacular paint finishes. I back him to score any time he’s one-on-one in the paint. He has the creativity and explosiveness to do it. He can hit looping off-balance layups, finish adventurous euro steps, and throw down destructive dunks.
What he doesn’t do enough is pass. As soon as a defense collapses, he must be more willing to move the ball. He has multiple possessions every game where he doesn’t, leaving teammates beyond the three-point line open with empty hands. During the Knicks game, ESPN’s Doris Burke called Council out for it.
After his defender flew by him on a pump fake, Council drove into the paint where New York’s Precious Achuwia and Josh Hart were there to contest. As his teammates Justin Edwards, Jeff Dowtin Jr., and Paul George (in the opposite corner!) stood open, ready for a catch, Council attempted a double-pump layup that missed off the front rim. “I’d like Council to show a bit more vision there,” Doris said.
Doris has a point. According to NBAStats, Council racks up about one assist every five drives, an absurdly low number (he averages 2.6 drives per game, so that’s one drive assist every two games). He is capable of it — in a similar play against OKC, Council drove into the paint from the corner, found himself surrounded by defenders, and floated a pass to Justin Edwards who attacked a close-out and gave it to Adem Bona who scored an And-1 dunk. But there are far more plays where he doesn’t make the obvious pass. His aggression should be celebrated, especially as he’s a great free-throw shooter, but with time he needs to learn that C4 can’t explode over everything.
Becoming more vigilant during drives is vital to his offensive value as he has not proven himself as an outside threat yet. He’s a career 28.9% three-point shooter, which is a little boosted by last season’s 37.5% three-point percentage when he only shot 32 threes in 32 games. He’s played the same number of games this campaign and shot 26 more threes, but only made two more, meaning his 3P% has fallen to 24.1%.
He’s not taking harder shots either. Over a quarter of his shots this season have been wide-open threes (no defender within six feet). He’s shot 13.5% on those shots. In January, he hasn’t made a single wide-open three on 13 attempts. It may just be a cold stretch, but it’s the same cold as a blizzard in Antarctica, where it’s already freezing.
He’s shown a bit more promise defensively. Being an athletic outlier has helped him be a disruptive force. He averages just one deflection a game, but that is the eighth-best mark out of 56 players who play less than 13.5 minutes per game (Ricky is at 13.2). He was very active at the top of the zone when Nurse deployed it against the Thunder.
At times he cheats a bit too much — which can be fine as he has the defense to recover — but there are some inexcusable moments, like in the clip below. As with his drives, he needs to be smarter about when to bank on his explosiveness and when to make the simple play.
Jeff Dowtin Jr.:
Jared McCain is out for the season. Kyle Lowry and Reggie Jackson are old. The Philadelphia 76ers need a backup point guard. Enter Jeff Dowtin Jr. The 27-year-old has dominated the G-League (this season he’s averaging 32.7 points while shooting 56.5% from three) but that hasn’t translated. He’s looked timid in his NBA minutes. A reserved and unthreatening ball-handler.
During pick and rolls, he barely attacks the paint. Rather, he meanders and prods in front of the pick, seldom choosing a path to the rim or making a confident move. It means he has an extremely low turnover rate in such possessions, which is, you know, nice. But it’s like me saying I’ve never missed a shot in the NBA.
It may be a comfortability thing as he looked more assertive attacking off screens in the second halves of the last two games. He found the roller often, made the right kick-out pass and had a gorgeous dime to a cutting Oubre. More of that, please!
He can keep his dribble alive and maneuver himself into advantageous spots. Creatively, he has a few things in his bag: a push dribble here, a low dribble there, a little fadeaway shot I don’t mind.
That being said, he should never have an isolation possession. According to NBA stats, Dowtin is in the 20th percentile of isolation scorers. Eighty percent of the NBA is better than him. He averages 0.7 points per iso possession on 28% field goal percentage. There were a couple of possessions in the last two games where he should’ve just swung the ball to the open man, like Council in the clip below, but he decided to dribble back out and try to get to his comfort mid-range shot.
I think he’s a better shooter than Council but the sample size is small (5 of 16 from deep this season). He does have a flair for dramatic threes, which is always nice (see: Payton Pritchard).
Adem Bona:
Like Dowtin as the backup point guard, Adem Bona in theory fills a position of need for the Sixers. With Drummond currently injured and largely ineffective this season, Bona is the next center in line. The 41st overall pick of the 2024 draft has bounce and speed, but is yet to fill in to an NBA-suitable body.
He was thrown around these last two games. Bodied and vastly outmuscled. That’s somewhat understandable against Oklahoma’s Isaiah Hartenstein. Haretnstein is one of the best rebounders in the league and is mobile and physical. Against him, Bona looked exactly like the rookie he is. He was helplessly pushed under the rim on multiple occasions.
If he overcame strength deficits in the box-out stage of a rebound or was uncontested, he mishandled or dropped the ball a couple of times. I think this is fixed with experience (he needs to time his jumps better) and off-seasons in the weight room. He has the athleticism and is comfortable grabbing boards over smaller defenders, as he should be.
It would’ve been nice to see him hold his own a bit more in the Knicks game. With Karl Anthony-Towns injured, Bona went up against Jericho Sims, a slim athletic center who’s never gained real NBA minutes, and Precious Achuwia, a more experienced but still undersized big. They also took turns pushing Bona out of position.
It wasn’t all rough for Bona. When he gets inside position he can stretch those long limbs and jump quicker than his foe. He had a great offensive rebound and hook shot against Achuwia.
Bona’s athleticism means he can get up for a good shot contest but they are so few and far between at this point. In these last two games — where he’s played genuine rotation minutes rather than go up against other end-of-bench players in garbage time — opponents shot 5.9% better at the rim when Bona was the closest defender. The fifth worst mark for a center if it was for the whole season.
Bona could become an effective rim-to-rim, rebounding big as soon as next season. He’s just not ready right now. I hope he gets to show off his athleticism on a more regular basis as it can lead to thrilling highlights, like this fake-pass-to-dunk move against OKC.
Not every player Philly’s front office brings off the street will be a Guerschon Yabusele or a Justin Edwards, but they don’t have to be. There’s a genuine path where Council can be a regular sparkplug off a bench, Dowtin turns into a serviceable reserve point guard who can run an offense for 30 possessions, and Bona can be a 15-minute a game big who makes a top-10 poster dunk once a year.
One of the silver linings of an injury-riddled season is the experience it gives to players who need it (Memphis Grizzlies historic injury run last season gave them GG Jackson minutes, for example). That’s something to look forward to as this season slowly but surely goes down the drain.