Saric deserves more Rookie of the Year consideration than Embiid

PHILADELPHIA >> The NBA season was still relatively new when Brett Brown offered his first read on a race for a valued postseason award. That’s when he threw Dario Saric’s hat and a stern qualifier into the mix.

“If it weren’t for Joel Embiid and what he’s doing,” Brown said, weeks ago, “we’d have to be talking about Dario for Rookie of the Year.”

Saric wasn’t even a regular starter at the time, didn’t

be talking about Dario for Rookie of the Year.”

Saric wasn’t even a regular starter at the time, didn’t have an assigned position and was prone to streaks and inconsistencies, but Brown, as he often is in conversation about basketball, was a step ahead of the play. He could see Saric’s vision, rim-protection instincts, passion, physical skills and outside shooting ability, and he could project early what has become a reality. Dario Saric is going to be in that Rookie of the Year race. And not only will it not be a novelty campaign, but as has been shown recently in significantly less whimsical elections, he could sneak up and win the thing.

“I’ve said this many, many times,” Brown was saying again the other night, when Saric would help push the Sixers past the Miami Heat, 117109. “If Joel is not in the NBA, then you are talking about Dario Saric as a legitimate candidate for Rookie of the Year.”

While other precincts could have an influence, high among them Milwaukee and Los Angeles, Saric even should be able to carry Philadelphia. That’s because Joel Embiid rarely plays. So, talented as he is, that should compromise his candidacy. More, since the Sixers continue to publicly pile layers of disturbing information about the knee injury that has kept him out of 12 of their last 13 games, there is no realistic expectation that Embiid will be any more reliable for the rest of this season.

The award is for the rookie of the year, emphasis on year. Not half a year. Not part of a year. Not parts of games in parts of a year. Embiid is spectacular when he plays, a stretch five with a handle, baseline-to-baseline speed, premium shotblocking skills and charisma. But he doesn’t play. He goes through shootarounds, apparently. He occasionally warns up before home games, to the delight of his mesmerized fans. He tweets a lot. He enjoys to concerts (au natural from the belt up) and struts around on stage. But he ... doesn’t ... play … basketball. And unless he is the rarest of athletes not to eventually have a torn meniscus surgically repaired, he may not play any more basketball this season.

Those Sixers fans brainwashed to believe that the real score is kept by how many potential stars a team collects will bristle against the thought. But the longer Embiid sits, and the more Saric improves, that Rookie of the Year race will continue to expand. And if Embiid is rejected by the voters for his inactivity, then guess who is No. 2 among NBA rookies in scoring and No. 3 in rebounding. That would be your Dario Saric, who has played 54 games to Embiid’s 31, and who makes noticeable strides as a pro every trip down the floor.

“We talk a lot about his spacing,” Brown said. “And we talk about his three-point shot, which is going to jump-start so much else about his offense. He has a full mentality of catch-and-go, go-and-catch and how to play downhill. And he’s a big guy. I think when he can get his threepoint shot up to 39 to 41 percent reliability and he really warrants a closer close-out, it will open up a lot.”

It’s too early to tell how Saric’s in-season growth will impact the Rookie of the Year race. If Embiid returns and continues to lead all first-year players in scoring and rebounding, he will win in a landslide. Even if he doesn’t do much in the last 25 games, he could cost Saric consideration, with voters hesitating to reward the perceived second-best rookie on one particular team. That could throw the race to Malcolm Brogdon, who is having a strong season for the Bucks, or maybe to the gifted Brandon Ingram of the Lakers, the player the Sixers declined to draft ahead of Ben Simmons.

Earlier, the Sixers waged a campaign for Embiid to be a starter in the All-Star Game. That failed. And when the Eastern Conference coaches chose not to vote him into the game as a reserve, it was a sign that the basketball universe is not ready to rain awards on someone who too seldom plays.

“Do you think he has an advantage because he gets to take games off?” Shaquille O’Neal has said on TNT, a rare voice of authority willing to question Embiid. “He’s playing limited minutes.”

The legend of Saric is well-known, his father something of a basketball legend in Croatia, his mother a former player. Identified as a probable world-class star by the time he was a teenager, Saric excelled at the highest levels of international basketball and eventually joined the Sixers this season.

The 6-10 forward doesn’t start, but often finishes. And he is helping the 76ers show improvement over recent years while Embiid works out in some Camden hydro-tank in front of a panel of self-important sports scientists.

Three games ago, Saric dropped 20 on the Spurs, then went for 24 points and eight rebounds in Orlando before scoring 19 points to help stop the Heat’s 13-game winning streak.

So it’s time to change the narrative. It’s time to change it to this: If it weren’t for what Dario Saric is doing, Joel Embiid would have to be talked about as the Rookie of the Year.