Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Saric just starting to grow his legend
PHILADELPHIA >> Dario Saric was just a youth player in Croatia, yet already there was a standard. He would be great. He would be legendary. He would not, not there, not anywhere, be a backup basketball player for long, if at all.
He was the son of Predrag Saric, once a basketball star in Croatia, a teammate of Draven Petkovic, the legendary Hall of Famer. His mother, Viselinka, was a basketball player, too. If he wasn’t born to play that sport, it seemed that way, long before he grew to be 6-foot-10.
“From the time he was very young,” Brett Brown was saying the other day, “they knew about him.”
Saric is 22, a rookie in the NBA, but hardly a newcomer to professional basketball. He has played in the EuroLeague, as close to NBA standards as there is in the sport. He played in the Turkish League, just a notch below that. He played in the Olympics. He was a firstround NBA draft choice.
And for the Sixers, the sizzling Sixers, the Sixers who have won seven of their last nine … he is a backup stretch-four to Ersan Ilyasova, a utility piece, a change-of-pace forward. So, with that, he adapts.
“It’s my first year,” Saric was saying Wednesday, after making a difference in multiple ways to the Sixers’ 94-89 victory over the Toronto Raptors. “So it wouldn’t bother me, wouldn’t give me any agony if I don’t start. But of course, if I start, it would be easier to play. That’s for sure.”
If he were starting, it would be in a frontcourt with Joel Embiid, who changes games and, as such, has changed a program. Embiid’s defensive presence creates more offensive opportunities. And his ability to stretch to three-point range, make free throws and finish around the basket draws more attention from defenses, theoretically easing pressure on his teammates. So it is natural that every 76er would prefer a shift with the presumptive Rookie of the Year.
But the Sixers are thriving not just because of their first team, but their second, with Nerlens Noel, Saric, Gerald Henderson, Sergio Rodriguez and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
Brown is sold on that two-shift rotation, with both groups presenting the same variety of skills. In it, Saric has flourished, becoming an effective scorer, rebounder and defender … becoming, that is, the player the Sixers promised when they finally lured him to the NBA.
“There’s a rhythm to what we’re doing, there is a beat, there is a symmetry, now that we have decided on rotations,” Brown said. “I feel like we can go a lot of places. We go back to rotation and roles and expectations of the players. It all adds up to having a chance to have some continuity.”
Because of injuries, experiments, losing streaks and the eternal coaching trial-error torment, it took the Sixers a while to find that peace at the scorer’s table. And by starting 10 games, Saric did have his chances, as almost every Sixer has, to push into that No. 1 unit.
Earlier, Saric wasn’t so much disappointing as he was inconsistent, occasionally providing subtle contributions to victories, but not always shooting well. But the more he plays, the more his legend makes sense. He had 17 points and nine rebounds in a meaningful victory Monday in Milwaukee, 15 points in a triumph over Charlotte, 18 when the Sixers won in Brooklyn.
Then there was the triumph over Toronto, and these contributions, all in one five-plus-minute fourthquarter flurry that had 17,223 in a full-throated roar: A rebound, a snuff, another snuff, a layup, a rebound and a three-pointer with six minutes left that gave the Sixers an 81-74 lead.
“He was an instigator,” Brown said, “of getting us going.”
And with the way he had helped the Sixers into conversation about the postseason, Saric suddenly is in the conversation for an award almost certain to land only a few locker stalls away.
“If Joel Embiid weren’t in the league, you’d have him in consideration for Rookie of the Year,” Brown said. “We should really look at what he is doing as a rookie.”
Embiid is leading NBA rookies in scoring, averaging 19.9 points. But Saric is No. 2 at 9.7. Saric’s 5.9 rebounds per game are also second among rookies only to Embiid’s 7.8. So, yes, in another year, he may have been a candidate for the award that Michael Carter-Williams won in 2014 before being traded in 2015.
“I try to give my best,” he said. “And if that means I am behind Joel or three or four players, it doesn’t mean anything. Then, at the end of the season, if you can read your name up with the top players like Joel, for me, it would mean a lot. But it is not something I think about before I go to sleep.”
The Sixers will host the Portland Trail Blazers Friday, and Saric will be ready to play at up to four positions, to provide a jolt, to be that instigator again.
“Every guy on the team has his own job,” he said. “And you can always do it better by giving effort. You just try to give 100 percent. You just try to give everything you can in that moment.”
Do that often enough, and a legend will start … or in some cases, grow.
To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery