Dario Saric is starting to find his groove
After a rough start to the season, we’re starting to see Dario Saric come alive for the Philadelphia 76ers.
In beating the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, the Philadelphia 76ers secured their second victory against one of the East’s top four teams while also advancing to 13-9. For a team that has played Golden State, Houston and Boston twice each, that’s an impressive start to the campaign.
One of the biggest factors in last night’s victory was the late-game heroics of Dario Saric, who drilled the go-ahead three down the stretch. He had similar importance in the team’s win against Washington earlier in the week, hitting a handful of big shots down the stretch.
This past week has easily been Saric’s best stretch of the season, as the second-year forward seems to have found a groove he couldn’t quite locate early on. His shot is coming on, and he seems to be far more comfortable in his new role alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
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The NBA as a whole has been a new experience for Dario, which in turn makes it an adjustment. Last year was about him getting used to the NBA pace and physicality, and this year he was forced to adjust to a new role with a lot of new talent around him.
Add in the fact that he has spent the past two summers competing overseas, and it’s obviously a difficult adjustment to make.
That overseas competition could, at least partially, be at fault for Saric’s early struggles this year as well. His shots were short, and he seemed a step slow in everything he was doing. Spending the offseason playing competitively — rather than resting and training — can do that to somebody who plays Saric’s brand of basketball.
But now that he has found his groove, we’re finally starting to see where Saric’s ceiling stands — something that was a bit murkier early in the season. He was in the thick of the Rookie of the Year conversation last year, and is regaining that form now that his comfort level has peaked.
Saric hasn’t been quite as he was in 2016-17, but part of that is the limitations that come with his role. Playing the majority of last season without Embiid and Simmons, Dario was a crutch for Brett Brown in an offense that lacked talent elsewhere.
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That allowed him more freedom as a playmaker, using his frame to bully his way to the basket and exploiting passing lanes with his underrated vision around the paint. This year he’s off the ball and playing more of a complimentary role when it comes to passing, meaning the bulk of his value comes from shooting — which has improved drastically in recent weeks — and slashing.
Rather than looking lost of offense, Saric is now finding his spots with regularity. Simmons has found him out on the break a few times, while his interior finishing is quickly becoming one of his best traits. He has a lot of nifty tricks he can break out on the low block, and the majority of them seem to be effective.
He’s also improving defensively. The energy has always been there, but he no longer looks out of sorts. There are still possessions where he’ll get caught out of position, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was last season. That energy also helps feed his confidence when he’s playing well.
Saric is an all-around good guy who’s impossible not to like, so this mini-breakout of his is something we’re all happy to see. He’s averaging 17.6 points and 8.4 rebounds over the last five games.