As he prepares for his second NBA season, Sixers swingman Ricky Council has been taking part this summer season within the non-public runs held in Los Angeles by Sixers assistant Rico Hines, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Council is engaged on fine-tuning his sport within the hope of incomes rotation minutes in Philadelphia in 2024/25.
“This summer season has been an entire lot of labor, perhaps much more than final yr,” Council stated. “Protecting my taking pictures contact up, engaged on completely different ending strikes, simply studying the sport, enjoying towards good competitors day by day. All that’s going to assist me in the long term.”
Having spent most of his rookie season in 2023/24 on a two-way contract, Council didn’t see a ton of motion on the NBA stage, however he impressed in his restricted minutes, averaging 5.4 factors in 32 outings (9.0 MPG), with a taking pictures line of .482/.375/.746. He is aware of that with the intention to get extra enjoying time in ’24/25, he’ll have to indicate he can excel in a complementary function.
“We now have Paul George. We now have Tyrese Maxey and we’ve got Joel Embiid,” Council stated. “I don’t anticipate they’ll want a lot off the dribble in that nature. So I simply want to have the ability to hit open pictures and guard individuals.”
Right here’s extra from across the Jap Convention:
- There’s “zero fact” to rumors that billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is desirous about bidding on the Celtics, a supply near Bezos tells Nick Wingfield of The Info. As Kurt Helin of NBC Sports activities notes, there was hypothesis in league circles that Bezos could have curiosity in being concerned in an enlargement franchise in Seattle, nevertheless it doesn’t sound like he’s seeking to acquire management of the defending champions, whose majority possession group put its stake up on the market earlier this summer season.
- Showing on the Membership 520 Podcast (YouTube hyperlink), Bucks guard Damian Lillard admitted that his first yr in Milwaukee final season was a “tougher transition” than he anticipated. Along with going by a tumultuous interval in his private life on the time, he additionally discovered it difficult to regulate to enjoying alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton after being traded from Portland to Milwaukee simply days earlier than coaching camp. “I’m having to get used to enjoying with two (nice) gamers and I don’t need to cease them from doing what they do,” Lillard stated (hat tip to HoopsHype). “However I bought to seek out the way to be the very best model of me inside this too, so it was simply quite a lot of transferring components. It was tougher than I assumed it might could be.”
- The Celtics sit atop ESPN’s predictions for the 2024/25 Jap Convention standings, adopted by the Knicks, Sixers, Cavaliers, and Bucks, in that order. The Magic spherical out ESPN’s projected group of top-six playoff groups, adopted by the Pacers, Warmth, Hawks, and Bulls within the play-in group. For what it’s price, ESPN’s panel sees an enormous disparity between the the highest two and backside two play-in groups, projecting 46 wins for Indiana and 45 for Miami, in comparison with 31 for Atlanta and 30 for Chicago.
