The Default ROY: Inside Dario Saric's Improbable NBA Rookie of the Year Bid
LOS ANGELES — One way or another, someone from the Philadelphia 76ers figures to bring home hardware after the 2016-17 NBA season.
"We believe the Rookie of the Year will run through Philadelphia," head coach Brett Brown proclaimed both before and after the Sixers' 112-100 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.
Back in January, that prediction would've pointed squarely at Joel Embiid, a 7'2" phenom who could dribble, pass, shoot and post up on one end while jumping passing lanes and forming a force field around the rim on the other.
But Embiid has played just once since Jan. 20—a 32-point swan song against the Houston Rockets on Jan. 27—and won't be seen again until 2017-18 on account of a torn meniscus in his left knee. He finished his debut campaign with 786 minutes in 31 appearances. To date, Patrick Ewing holds the record lows in games (50) and minutes (1,771) for a Rookie of the Year winner in a non-lockout-shortened season.
With Embiid's case potentially on the fritz, Brown now finds himself lobbying on behalf of another 2014 draftee whose debut followed a two-year delay: Dario Saric.
"Time and time again you see why Dario's name is mentioned in that conversation," the coach said.
Folks in L.A. got earfuls and eyefuls of Saric's skills over the weekend.
There was Saric posting up...
And Saric rising up.
Saric threading needles...
And Saric finishing through contact.
Saric resisting inside...
And Saric sticking with a switch outside.
"That's what makes Dario, Dario," Sixers point guard T.J. McConnell said. "He's able to guard any position."
He can fill just about any spot on offense as well. He followed up a 16-point, five-rebound, two-assist effort against the Clippers with a career-high 29 points to go with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals in a 118-116 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday.
Saric has been through far more on the court than the average NBA newbie. He started playing pro ball in his native Croatia in 2009, passed up the NBA draft in 2013 and spent another two seasons in Turkey after the Sixers acquired his rights through a draft-day trade with the Orlando Magic in 2014.
"I don't really think he looks at himself as a rookie," said Gerald Henderson Jr., one of the Sixers' elder statesmen. "You can tell he's played with men before. He's a bully, man."
Henderson reminds Saric to bring it every day with a shared biceps smack that acts as a secret handshake. "Just play strong," Henderson tells him.
Not that Saric needs to be prodded into physicality. Any stereotype about Europeans being soft bounces right off him as he battles bigger, stronger, more athletic opponents on a nightly basis.
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers described Saric as "tougher than you would think."
"From the first open gyms in the summer when he got here, the first practices, just getting to watch him, that's the first thing you pick up," said Sixers forward Richaun Holmes, "just how tough he is, how good of a feel for the game he has."
"He's pretty tough," Philly point guard Sergio Rodriguez added.
No tower of testimonials was tall enough to land Saric a starring role with the Sixers for the first few months of the season, let alone from the get-go. The 6'10" forward came into training camp as Philly's second big, but he soon slipped further down Brown's depth chart.
A week into the season, the Sixers snagged Ersan Ilyasova and a 2020 protected first-rounder from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Jerami Grant. By mid-November, Ilyasova had supplanted Saric in Philly's starting lineup.
But the 29-year-old Turkish forward wasn't merely an obstacle in Saric's path. He was also a role model of sorts for the rookie. The two shared similar physical profiles, though Ilyasova (36.9 percent from three for his career) was well ahead of his understudy as a shooter (32.2 percent from three).
"I think the way Ersan played at the time he was here helped [Saric] to see what he could do better," Rodriguez said. "He took that time to learn, and maybe there were games that he wasn't playing a lot, but he was ready by the time he got the opportunity."
That chance came after the trade deadline, when the Sixers shipped Ilyasova to the Atlanta Hawks. With him gone, Saric could slide back in as a starter.
And with Embiid and Simmons ruled out for the remainder of the season and Nerlens Noel dealt to the Dallas Mavericks, Saric was left standing as not only Philly's best prospect, but its best player at any level of experience.
Since then, Saric's game has been on full display. His 19.7 points and 4.8 free-throw attempts since the trade deadline are each best among all rookies. His 8.4 rebounds rank second only to New York Knicks center Willy Hernangomez, while his 4.4 assists put him third behind Phoenix's Tyler Ulis and Dallas' Yogi Ferrell—both point guards by trade.
Justin Anderson didn't think much of Saric when they initially crossed paths on Feb. 1. Anderson, who played four-and-a-half minutes off the bench for the Mavs that night, saw the recent import struggle for 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting in an 18-point pounding for Dallas.
It wasn't until Anderson landed in Philly as part of the return package for Noel that he was able to make sense of the hype surrounding Saric.
"I instantly realized how good and talented he is to be a rookie," Anderson said. "I realized how much of a great passer he was, how much of a great scorer. He really knows the game of basketball."
Saric still has plenty to learn. For all of his anecdotal flashes of skill, the numbers paint a picture of a player whose offensive game remains a work in progress.
| Transition | 15.6% | 0.96 | 27.1% |
| Post Up | 8.3% | 0.67 | 7.1% |
| Isolation | 8.6% | 0.63 | 17.2% |
| Spot Up | 27.4% | 0.93 | 43.3% |
Nor is Saric yet much of a spot-up threat, with a three-point percentage hovering below the league average. But in Brown's mind, shoring up his footwork and adding a few inches to his arc could strengthen his game by leaps and bounds.
"I think the growth of his three-point shot is almost, for me, I'll say all of it—I don't really mean that—but all of his future," the Sixers coach said. "His life will be so much easier when he can reliably make threes."
Those improvements could all come in due time for the 22-year-old. The signs of a strong work ethic are already there.
"Whether it's a back-to-back or a day off," Henderson said, "he's in there shooting, working on his moves, whatever it is."
This is just the beginning of what looks to be another long and fruitful journey for Saric. So far, he has a strong case to make for Rookie of the Year among the best remaining first-years, assuming Embiid is no longer in the running.
| Dario Saric | 66 | 25.8 | 12.2 | 41.0% | 32.2% | 6.3 | 2.2 | 12.6 |
| Yogi Ferrell | 29 | 26.1 | 10.2 | 42.0% | 38.0% | 2.2 | 3.7 | 13.3 |
| Malcolm Brogdon | 63 | 25.8 | 9.9 | 44.6% | 41.7% | 2.7 | 4.1 | 14.2 |
| Buddy Hield | 66 | 21.1 | 9.3 | 41.2% | 39.1% | 3.0 | 1.3 | 10.7 |
Saric wouldn't mind winning the award, but he isn't tossing and turning over recognition either way.
"It's not something in my mind when I wake up in the morning," he said. "It's nothing like the last thing in my mind when I'm going to sleep."
The Sixers, on the other hand, are already dreaming of what kind of player Saric will be—and what kind of squad they'll have—when Simmons and Embiid are fit to play and the front office sorts out how best to build the rest of the roster with lottery picks, trades and free agents.
Said Anderson, "It'll be really fun."
All quotes obtained firsthand. All stats and salary information via NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.
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