The Sixer Sense
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Philadelphia 76ers Vasilije Micic Close To Anadolu Efes LT Contract

By Bret Stuter

Feb 24, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; A young fan expresses displeasure with Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo after the trade of Nerlens Noel before the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 24, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; A young fan expresses displeasure with Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo after the trade of Nerlens Noel before the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports /
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Feb 24, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; A young fan expresses displeasure with Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo after the trade of Nerlens Noel before the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 24, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; A young fan expresses displeasure with Philadelphia 76ers general manager Bryan Colangelo after the trade of Nerlens Noel before the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Washington Wizards at the Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports /

The Philadelphia 76ers have shown little interest in importing PG Vasilije Micic to the NBA. So Micic is now working on a long-term deal with Anadolu Efes

The Philadelphia 76ers are no strangers to the practice of the Draft and Stash tactic of the NBA. Right now, the team retains the exclusive rights to both Serbian point guard Vasilije Micic and Turkish shooting guard Furkan Korkmaz.  Micic is a 6-foot-5 185 guard who has not been called to the NBA yet.  The Sixers have been content to allow him to play and develop on a European basketball team roster.

Well, for now anyways.

The Philadelphia 76ers drafted Micic with the 52nd pick of the 2014 NBA Draft.  Since that time, he had had a slowly developing career in the Euroleague, plagued with injury and lack of consistent playing time. But Micic’s progress has turned to the positive.  Most recently, Micic’s production has earned him headlines.  In fact, he’s been scoring far above his averages.

Anadolu Efes Again

While that has caught our notice here, it has also captured the interest of a European team we are all quite familiar with: Anadolu Efes. Efes is the former team of Philadelphia 76ers power forward Dario Saric, and is the current team of shooting guard Furkan Korkmaz.   Now, reports link Vasilije Micic to Anadolu Efes via negotiations on a long-term deal.  The report springs from Eurobasket.com, and indicates that the 23 year-old Micic is close to signing with Efes..  The report goes on to cite Micic’s recent run of 24 games with an average of 13.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game.

So now the question is, how does this impact the Philadelphia 76ers?

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Well, to be quite truthful, not in a material way. The Philadelphia 76ers retained the NBA rights to Micic during the life of his non-NBA team contract.  This recent development places Micic on the course to an NBA Free Agent.

You see, the Philadelphia 76ers have a four-year “exclusive rights” window to negotiate a contract with Micic to play in the NBA.  But with three years behind both parties, the 76ers no longer benefit from the rookie contract salary cap.

So now to the future.  If 2018 comes and goes, Micic will no longer be an exclusive rights player bound to the Philadelphia 76ers. With the appearance of an imminent deal with Efes, that is the likely outcome now.  That translates into Vasilije Micic no longer depending upon the Philadelphia 76ers for his NBA opportunity.

Next: Has The Process Stranded Jahlil Okafor?

Some have asserted that if an international player does not transfer into the NBA within two years of their draft, they will likely never arrive.  That seems to be true here.  In short, Micic negotiating with Efes is the equivalent of telling team president Brian Colangelo:
“Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You!”