3 Players that need to step up for the 76ers to secure early season role

The Philadelphia 76ers are in win-now mode after a strong offseason. The Sixers will start their 2024-25 campaign with the goal of winning a championship, and they will need to determine quickly which players are capable of helping them in the long run. Success is imperative for Nick Nurse and there will be no room for players that cannot perform to a standard.

Nurse is known for his stingy rotation and the fact that he is letting his top guys handle a lot of minutes during the season. However, with Joel Embiid and Paul George as his veterans, he might go on a different route and manage the roles differently, especially at the start of the season. The 76ers will have to determine their rotation as quickly as possible.

The fellow Eastern Conference rivals are starting from a different base as they engaged in the minimum amount of roster moves. In contrast with the Philadelphia team that embarked on a full roster overhaul keeping only some key players from last season's squad.

Ricky Council IV hopes to use NBA Summer League momentum for the 76ers

Ricky Council IV became a stalemate in the rotation during the final games of the 2023-24 regular season. He took advantage of his time on the court and won the right to enter the 2024 Summer League as a potential offensive initiator for the Philadelphia 76ers. In the 32 games he appeared last season, he only secured nine minutes per game and shot 37.5% from deep.

During the 2024 Summer League, he amped up his numbers, registering 18.7 points on 40/29/87 shooting splits. His high usage did not help him to be efficient from the floor, but he remained aggressive and went to the line 7 times per game through seven Summer League appearances.

Council's performance in the wing early in the season will determine if he can be a rotational option for the crucial second part of the season. Council could provide an instant-scoring option coming off the bench, but he remains a liability in defense. His shooting from beyond the arc will be a major factor that will determine his time on the court.

If the Arkansas product goes cold during the early stretch of the season, he will be pushed down at the deep end of the bench. The fact that he will also have several veteran wings to surpass in the rotation will make it more difficult for him to stage a reemergence mid-season.