CARROLL, Iowa — Ricky Council IV has been working on his game regularly with 76ers assistant coaches last summer.
But that was just a starting point.
“This summer has been really busy, maybe even more than last year,” Council said, “keeping my shooting level high, working on different finishing moves, just learning the game, playing against good competition every day.
“All of this will help me in the long run.”
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The 6-foot-2, 200-pound winger is in Los Angeles with his teammates, where he’s taking part in the Rico Hines Private Runs led by the Sixers’ assistant coach. The undrafted second-year player is determined to earn a regular spot in the Sixers’ rotation.
Shortly after last season, Council, 23, learned he would likely get more minutes by moving to forward.
But that was before the Sixers revamped their power forward position with the acquisition of the nine-time All-Star. Paul GeorgeCaleb Martin and Eric Gordon, and re-signing Kelly Oubre Jr. The Sixers too added Guerschon Yabusele Sunday and re-signed KJ Martin at power forward, a position Council has played a few times.
“I want to continue to prove myself,” said Council, who played fullback at Arkansas. “And when training camp and practices come around, I’m going to continue to prove myself and trust the players and the coaches and we’ll see what happens from there.”
Council averaged 5.4 points and 9 minutes played and shot 37.5 percent (12 of 32) from three-point range in 32 games last season. He had career-highs of 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 119-113 win over the Washington Wizards on Feb. 10 at Capital One Arena.
The former all-around player had a knack for producing whenever he was given extended minutes. He did the same thing in July as the Sixers’ summer league team’s go-to guy.
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Council averaged 18.7 points and was the third-leading scorer in the Salt Lake City Summer League. He also shot 42.1 percent on three-pointers.
He then averaged 18.8 points during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Council did not shoot the ball well in Vegas, hitting just 18.2 percent of his three-point attempts. However, he did average 2.3 steals.
“I feel like most of my game is done,” Council said. “I know on this team I really don’t have to do much…
“We have Paul George. We have Tyrese Maxey and we have Joel Embiid. I don’t think they’re going to need a lot of dribbling in this nature. So I just have to be able to hit open shots and defend on people.
Go camping: The Sixers will hold training camp at Atlantis Paradise Islands in the Bahamas from Oct. 1-5, the team officially announced Monday.
