How Ricky Council IV has made the most of an up-and-down week

After a one-game demotion to the G-League, Ricky Council IV came back as comfortable as ever.

As undrafted rookie Justin Edwards has earned his way into playing time, the wing who’s found himself on the outside looking in at the Sixers’ wing rotation has been Ricky Council IV.

So much so that he was sent down for an assignment with the Delaware Blue Coats back on Jan. 26, even after Paul George got hurt again the day before.

“I know it seemed kind of weird that he ended up in Delaware earlier the other day,” head coach Nick Nurse said later in the week. Nurse explained he felt it important for Council to still get minutes somewhere to feel more confident and comfortable in his role.

“I think that might have helped him a little bit, to go down there and maybe relax just a touch, but also to be able to play,” said Nurse.

Council’s minutes had waned a bit before a demotion, and he was a DNP-CD in a Jan. 24 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He didn’t see the floor the next night until George left the game due to injury.

Not only did he drop 29 points along with eight rebounds, a steal and a block in his one-game appearance in the G, but his coach felt really good about how he got there.

“I thought he went down there and played right, you know he didn’t go down there to try to score all the time,” Nurse said, “he really passed the ball he made the right play and again, I think that’s gonna help him.”

The Sixers called Council right back up after that game. In his three games since returning, he’s averaged 13 points and 3.3 rebounds off the bench. That’s on top of his typical contributions, like the 1.7 steals per game over that stretch on top of nine total trips to the free throw line.

A big reason for the bounce back has been a hot three-point shooting week. Even at just 2.3 attempts per game this season, Council has been a 29.7% shooter from beyond the arc.

In his last three games though, he’s made 46.2% of his threes on 4.3 attempts. This doesn’t feel entirely up to variance either. Despite being under 30% from deep, Council takes some of the deepest threes on the team.

NBA.com’s tracking data has him taking more shots from 25-29 feet at 1.3 per game, then the 0.9 attempts he takes from 20-24 feet. This season he’s shot 47% from that shorter range and just 17% from 25-29 feet. The NBA’s three-point line goes from ~22-23 feet, for reference.

Council feels the biggest difference is getting shots up quickly in rhythm as opposed to having to hoist something up at the end of the shot clock. He admitted he hasn’t always known where he’s going to get his looks.

“For a month or so it’s just [been] ‘what shots am I gonna get?’” Like most of the team, he’s finding more comfort as the team has figured each other out.

“If I’m getting good shots, if my feet are set and I’m playing in rhythm, I feel like I’m going to be shooting the ball well,” he said after a Jan. 29 win vs. the Kings, “so I’m gonna to try to stay away from the 3-2-1s and more of the 16, 15 seconds on the clock catch-and-shoot, in the motion.”

It’s been much easier to get those rhythm threes up from the corner as opposed to above the break. He’s not used to operating there though. Only 25% of his shots are non-corner threes this year compared to the 13% that are, per Cleaning the Glass.

He may begin to spot up there more often as he’s shot 46% on corner threes this season compared to just 24% on non-corner threes. Over the last three games, seven of this 13 three-point attempts have come from below the break. He even hit a bit of a Danny Green cut against the Denver Nuggets, going from one baseline to the other.

Council’s jumper and frankly, his overall game, will probably always look a bit unconventional. As long as it works, that’s all that matters right?