The Philadelphia 76ers have a ton of new faces, and Dario Saric is one of them. He has good qualities, but Brett Brown thinks his emotion may be a bad thing.
The Philadelphia 76ers have a very fun year ahead of themselves. They brought in several new faces, and are looking to finally transition out of their losing for draft picks stage, and start moving towards winning.
Part of that fun is going to be because of power forward Dario Saric, who was drafted in 2014 and stashed away overseas to develop for two years. He signed his rookie deal with the Sixers just last month, and the excitement surrounding his debut is incredible. For some, his debut is more important than Joel Embiid‘s or Ben Simmons‘.
Saric is currently playing in Rio for the Croatian National team. He’s a leader on that team, all without playing a single game in the NBA yet.
More from The Sixer Sense
- 3 Sixers players who could help Team USA Basketball
- 76ers 2k24 ratings: 3 most underrated players on Philadelphia roster
- 76ers head coach Nick Nurse bares lofty plans for Paul Reed this season
- Grade the Trade: 76ers swap Tobias Harris for superstar PG in mock deal
- Sixers Podcast: Danny Green returns + James Harden bombshell
Head coach Brett Brown has mostly great things to say about Saric, just as he does with all of his players. Speaking to Brian Seltzer on the BroadCast, he said this:
"He is so competitive and he is so aggressive, you can tell, you know, by the look on his face and, you know, body language, and the next play, how he’s going to have to take those times that he shows tremendous poise, and also when things are going a little bit funny, you know pull himself back and get himself back on track. I say that almost out of a compliment."
But just when the compliments seemed as if they could never stop coming from Brown to Saric, he doubled down and called Saric out on something that hasn’t really been talked about — his emotion. Brown did go right back to complimenting Saric after calling him out on this minor issue.
"I see all of those things come up. There are times I see the emotional side of it, sometimes, you know, go a little bit too far, I see poise most of the time but what I see almost all the time is a well skilled versatile player that I think is going to have a tremendous career in the NBA."
Maybe Brown is onto something. Saric does seem to get emotional with his game. While that works for some players, for others, it hurts them. In one of his recent Olympic Games, he became visibly frustrated when he came within one foul of fouling out of the contest, and certainly didn’t play all that well in that game.
Related Story: Brett Brown Says Dario Saric is Like Manu Ginobili
If Saric does have a little bit of an emotion problem on the court, he certainly doesn’t let it get to him too much. If Brown thinks it’s a serious issue, him and the coaching staff can address it and nip it as soon as training camp begins, or the first competitive games come around.
Next: Sixers Needs: Behavioral Acknowledgement
At the same time, you don’t want to take emotion completely out of Saric’s game, because that could be one of the major things fueling him and his incredible performances.