The Sixer Sense
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Dario Saric is Coming, But It’s Not Because of Colangelo

By Josh Wilson

Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Dario Saric (Croatia) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number twelve overall pick to the Orlando Magic in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Dario Saric (Croatia) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number twelve overall pick to the Orlando Magic in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dario Saric is reportedly on his way to the Philadelphia 76ers next season, but it’s not anything Bryan Colangelo did.

On Sunday afternoon, it was reported by multiple outlets that Dario Saric, a Croatian player who has spent the last few years playing in Turkey, would be coming to the Philadelphia 76ers for the 2016-17 season. The Sixers obtained his rights in the NBA Draft in 2014, and ever since then, he has been a hot topic of discussion among Sixers fans.

Saric has been a bit of a mystery for us. In order to get looks at his playing, we’ve had to find somewhat foreign internet streams of Turkey basketball games. Over the Summer, we got to see him play in some FIBA competition, and that got a lot of people excited for what he could do.

Saric, who is expected to play the four, has a decent shot and appears like he could be a stretch-4 in his time with the Sixers. He could work very well alongside one of the other three big-name big men that the Sixers have — Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, or Joel Embiid. All three of these guys do their best work close to the basket, so it would be nice as far as spacing goes to have someone in the frontcourt who can operate at further lengths.

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It was speculated a lot over the last few weeks what Saric’s future would be, and if the Sixers ever would, in fact, see him on their team, especially next season. Saric was a Sam Hinkie favorite, and after Sam stepped down from his position, it was incredibly uncertain as to how the future would be for Saric and the Sixers.

Hinkie reportedly kept in touch with Saric a lot, but so did people like head coach Brett Brown, who has talked about his concise text messages exchanged with him that get the head coach excited for what’s to come with him. I was worried when Hinkie resigned and Bryan Colangelo stepped in, that Bryan would be unable to keep in touch with Saric, and Saric would be unhappy with the situation.

Had Saric announced he wouldn’t be coming over to America for next season, a narrative exclaiming that Hinkie’s departure was a reason for that would have made sense. Of course having your main contact to the team that owns your NBA rights cut off would be alarming.

What I don’t understand, though, is the narrative being put in place by some that insinuates that Bryan Colangelo getting hired and Hinkie leaving is a reason why Saric came over to Philly. Yes, it’s interesting that the “official” announcement from an international basketball journalist — which is still just a report, not an actual announcement, I should point out — came after Colangelo was brought in as president of the team, but they are unrelated events.

Howard Eskin, the leader of the “Scam Hinkie” group — those who felt the way Hinkie chose to run the team was scamming fans out of time and money — was very adamant the afternoon of the announcement on Twitter that Saric was now coming over sooner rather than later — he can make more money in Turkey at the moment because of the rookie pay in the NBA — because there was a “real GM” running the team.

Whether you like Bryan or not (I’ve decided he doesn’t stray all that far from Hinkie) you should realize that Bryan’s hire didn’t away Saric. We’ve had a decent idea since the beginning of this season that Saric would be coming over next year, and we’ve even seen leaked papers that appear to be official stating 2016-17 as the year of his intended start with the team. Saric had made up his mind to play for the Sixers in this upcoming season long before Hinkie left.

Sam’s time is done, and people like Howard are really overplaying their displeasure with him now. Saric was coming over regardless of who was running this team, and if anything, Sam leaving might have made him think twice about the situation, and whether or not an extra year in Turkey would have helped his future.