The Philadelphia 76ers began their Summer League slate of games with a matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. In their first game of the Salt Lake City round-robin, the Summer Sixers won by a final score of 102-92.

The 76ers started rookies, Jared McCain, Adem Bona and Justin Edwards along with Ricky Council IV and Jeff Dowtin Jr., meshing the three newcomers with two holdovers from the main roster last season. Assistant coach Matt Brase coached Philly, who was disorganized at first but moved the ball well and defended hard. In front of a meager crowd in Utah and some awful camera work from the ESPN broadcast, the Sixers played pretty well and earned a victory.

Jared McCain is more than just a bucket

The 76ers' first-round pick is coming into the NBA with questions about his ability as a shot-creator. He can shoot really well but can he be a lead guard rather than just a scoring option off the wing, where he would be undersized? That will be one of the key skills to watch for in his Summer League showings.

Dowtin got most of the ball-handling duties but McCain got some chances to lead possessions, taking it into the paint for a contested layup with the Thunder getting back lazily on defense on one instance and lowering his shoulder to score against bigger defenders on another drive. The Duke product didn’t blow by anyone but his shifty handles gave him room to attack downhill. McCain has an advanced driving bag that, although still has to be proven against NBA-level competition, will give him a fighting chance to be impactful early on.

The three-point shooting will be there for McCain most nights (it wasn’t in this game) but what will determine how good he can be in the NBA is how much more he can do on offense. The talent is certainly there, as is the determination to overcome his lack of size, but it will be key to see where else he makes an impact. If this game is any indication, McCain is going to be a scrapper almost as much as he is a scorer.

McCain's inside-the-arc scoring was really on-point but that was far from his only contribution. He boxed out. He dove for a loose ball and got it ahead to Judah Mintz for a breakaway score. He made up for a deep brick where he thought he got fouled (and guessed wrong) by intercepting a pass and getting it up to Dowtin for the easy score. The final stat line for the 16th overall pick from the 2024 draft: 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals, 6-15 shooting (0-4 from deep).

Dowtin will probably get more on-ball reps in Utah since he isn’t playing in the Las Vegas Summer League and is the best option to get the team organized and operating on offense right now. But McCain is ready to step into that void when the time comes.

Adem Bona is raw but tantalizing

Bona attempted two dunks in the first 30ish seconds of the game. That's not just what you want to see in Summer League hoops but also a sign that the big man out of UCLA will indeed play very hard and put his freakish athletic traits to good use. In his first Summer League came, he tallied seven points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

The Summer Sixers had Bona stationed around the foul line, ready to set a screen and roll hard into the paint. He tallied a few assists in dribble handoffs and made himself available for passes each time. The Thunder had to account for the lobs as the game went on, creating some interior gravity that opened up looks from deep for others.

Bona's biggest highlight was perhaps an alley-oop from McCain, who fed the big man with a lefty scoop pass. The big man stuffed it on top of his defender for a slam that got the bench on its feet. Even when he makes a technical sound play by securing the offensive rebound and pump-faking the putback, he goes right back up again with a dunk.

There’s still plenty to clean up with Bona, who didn’t do a great job commanding the glass, has to sharpen up defensively and missed a few close shots he should have made. But the 76ers still have an athletic, hard-playing center to utilize off the bench opposite of Andre Drummond.

Ricky Council IV the 4th quarter supernova

After making legitimate strides in his rookie season, Council has some major expectations for this year’s Summer League. He was fine for most of this game before exploding in the fourth quarter, unleashing a shooting barrage that gave him 29 points (and eight rebounds) for the night on 9-18 shooting. He scored 19 points in the fourth quarter, more than any OKC player had for the entire game.

Council made a great impression in last year’s Summer League with his high-flying dunks but also showed some tough finishes below the rim throughout his rookie season. The hops may be what stands out the most but the strength he has in his lower body and core that allows him to keep driving through defenders and getting up a shot is very, very impressive. Although he was whistled for an offensive foul, the Thunder found it hard to keep him out of the paint. He made six of his seven free-throw attempts.

The best defense OKC had for Council in this game was to simply let him shoot from deep…until the fourth quarter arrived. His shot looks more confident and compact than it did at this point last offseason but Council came up empty from deep in the first three quarters. Then he made five triples in the final frame, hitting shots both off the catch and the dribble, even from deep. Of course, he still found room to throw down a thunderous dunk.

 

If Council's hot streaks from deep become a more regular occurrence, Nick Nurse may have no choice but to make him a rotation player. It will be very fun to see how he continues attacking for the rest of the Summer League.