It looks like the wait is officially over for the Philadelphia 76ers and their fans, when it comes to Croatian forward Dario Saric.
According to Jessica Camerato of CSN Philadelphia, Saric will sign with the Sixers on Friday. This report falls in line with what international basketball journalist David Pick tweeted on Wednesday evening stating that Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo told Saric’s team Anadolu Efes that they are signing him.
This season with Anadolu Efes, Saric averaged 11.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 23.1 minutes per game. He also shot 48.8 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from three-point range.
This is not a surprise for Sixers fans regarding this latest news about Saric, as it was only a matter of when not if he was going to join the Sixers.
Recently, Saric just finished playing in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Turin, Italy, where he helped Croatia advance to the summer games in Rio. In the championship game, Saric put a double-double consisting of 18 points and 13 rebounds and was named the MVP.
With Saric joining the Sixers in a couple of days, head coach Brett Brown will have the tall task of trying to figure out where to play the 6-foot-10 forward. Brown has mentioned numerous times at the summer league that Saric brings a lot of things to the table such as rebounding, scoring, and ball handling. He can also play the point forward position, just like we’ve seen Ben Simmons do this summer.
Finally, the pending addition of Saric means that the Sixers will almost certainly move a big man before the season begins. It’s just a matter of who they will trade, which could be either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor. Don’t expect Saric to come right in and play starters’ minutes because he’s essentially a rookie and there will be a learning curve as he gets acclimated to the NBA.
But having a player like Saric coming off the bench to begin the season, will only make the Sixers a better team in the long run.
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