The Philadelphia 76ers Had Dario Saric in a Chokehold

Dario Saric is being praised for taking a pay cut to play in the NBA, but the Philadelphia 76ers may have forced him to come this season.

Dario Saric is officially a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. He has a lot of work to do this summer in the Rio Olympics, but once he’s done with that, he will likely move to Philly and begin training with the team.

Saric made his way to America to get a physical and sign his contract on Thursday and Friday, an event that could certainly be categorized as a feel-good event. The press, the fans, and everyone involved with the situation made it an event that highlighted how badly Saric wanted to play in the NBA, and how this signified another change in the franchise, a change towards winning more.

The current narrative in place about Dario Saric coming to the NBA is that he put in significant amounts of his own money to buy out his previous contract, and he is a good person because he came because he gave his word to the Sixers.

That’s how it’s being portrayed.

It’s not wrong, by any means. Saric will pay nearly $500 thousand because of limits on how much the Sixers are allowed to contribute to his buyout. But the Sixers may have put Saric in a chokehold to come to America this season.

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I’m not here to question the character of Saric, but I just think it’s a huge cost for him to come over this season, and it doesn’t make much logical sense for him to have done so — until we consider that the Sixers had a serious chokehold on him to leverage. The chokehold may have been worse than the money spent, because it could have been detrimental to the success of his NBA career, whether it’s with the Sixers or not.

We must consider a few other factors with international players.

First, let’s realize that international players and their draft rights are retained by the team that owns them as long as they play pro basketball overseas. Those draft rights exist until the player is no longer with a non-NBA team for one full year. Per the CBA FAQ for the NBA:

"If the player is already under contract to, or signs a contract with a non-NBA team, the team retains the player’s draft rights for one year after the player’s obligation to the non-NBA team ends. Essentially, the clock stops as long as the player plays pro ball outside the NBA."

The Sixers traded for Saric’s draft rights on draft night, thus retaining Saric’s draft rights until he is removed from a non-NBA team for one year. The Sixers could have easily let Saric walk until next season, since he was on contract with the Anadolu Efes for one more season.

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If they would have passed on Saric this season, the Sixers could have threatened to not bring him over at all after this year. There’s no logical basketball reasoning for doing this, but they could have leveraged this to get Saric to come over now, rather than later. Saric may have threatened to hold out until next season due to the high financial cost of him coming over this year.

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If the Sixers threatened to leave Saric in Europe, a few things would happen that would have hurt Saric’s game.

First of all, Saric would have had to sit out from pro basketball for at least an entire season. If not, he would have to sign another contract overseas (since the NBA team that owns his rights, the Sixers, said they hypothetically wouldn’t bring him over), and be obligated to that non-NBA team for however many years the contract is, thus putting him in the same situation that he’s in now where he has to pay in to buy out his contract.

Which means it would make most sense for Saric to just wait out that season until the Sixers lose his draft rights (if they were to not bring him over) and become an unrestricted free agent. But that year off from pro basketball can hurt his game.

Taking a year off at this point in Saric’s career would be devastating for how far he’s come. He’s progressed so much, and really filled in to be a great, versatile offensive weapon. But if he takes a year off, he’s risking losing so much of that. If the Sixers threatened to not bring him over if he refused to come this season, he would be risking his entire NBA career.

So, in short, let’s summarize. Here’s what would happen for Saric if he stayed in Turkey for financial reasons. When the end of next season came around for Saric, here would have been his options:

• Wait for the Sixers to bring him over and sign him (at the mercy of the Sixers, can no longer come over on “own power”)
• Re-sign with Anadolu Efes or another international team, making it difficult for him to get to the NBA without another expensive buyout, which would be exactly what he is trying to avoid
• Wait a year and risk skills declining to become an unrestricted free agent

Oh, and on top of all that, there’s a possible lockout looming in the NBA for next summer, which means it could be even harder for Saric to make the jump from Europe to America next season or the year after, if the lockout does occur.

And lastly, Saric isn’t getting any younger. His talents seem to be just about fully developed, especially offensively, and his goal was to ultimately get to the NBA. It made sense to come now.

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Although Saric did put in a lot of money, the Sixers did have a pretty decent hold on him, if he truly wanted to play in the NBA. Although Saric isn’t getting scammed, he is likely completely aware of the situation, and saw that because of draft rights rules, it made sense for him to come “on his own power” rather than waiting for his contract to expire and trusting the Sixers to bring him over next summer.