Meeting Now. Should Dario Saric Decline, What’s Our Plan B?

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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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

The lineup of the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016-2017 will feel much more robust with International star Dario Saric. But if he declines, what’s our plan B?

Synchronized development. Staged growth. Chapters of a book. Layers to an onion. Rings of a tree. The seven bridges road.

Each describes a portion of a whole – an ecosystem, a planned community, a story, a vegetable, a tree, the human life cycle. But each has separate and distinct chapters, differences that divide as a river might dissect a plain.

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The Philadelphia 76ers are in that pattern. With the casting off of Sam Hinkie (okay, he resigned his position, but he was defrocked and powerless before he walked away) the team declared it was no longer stocking the pantry. In that symbolic moment, the team announced to the other 29 NBA teams that the objective had changed to placing the value onto the basketball court.

That means getting center Joel Embiid healthy and onto a basketball court.  It also means flying over to Turkey and persuading power forward Dario Saric that the opportune time to sign a contract with the Philadelphia 76ers is now, and that he should plan to play with in the NBA for the 2016-2017 season.

Flying to Turkey from the United States is not a puddle jumper experience. If you are lucky enough to get a one stop flight, you are likely looking at 13 to 16 hour flight. Compound that with multiple stops, and you’ve jumped to one or two days travel time one way.  For a basketball executive preparing for the NBA draft and off-season transactions – this is the Christmas season for the front office.

But the priority is to persuade the Croatian power forward to come to the US, to join the NBA, and to help the Philadelphia 76ers this season.  That’s huge for this team.

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