Source: Dario Saric to sign with Sixers on Friday

By Jessica Camerato July 13, 2016 6:25 PM

LAS VEGAS — The wait will be over this week.

Dario Saric will sign with the Sixers on Friday, according to a source.

The Sixers acquired Saric two years ago on draft night in a trade with the Orlando Magic, who selected him 12th overall. Since then, the 22-year-old forward from Croatia has been playing for Anadolu Efes in Istanbul.

According to international basketball reporter David Pick, the buyout for Saric's current overseas contract — which had one year remaining — is $1.1 million. Per the CBA, the Sixers can pay up to $650,000 of it while Saric must pay the rest.

There had been uncertainty as to when Saric would join the Sixers. Given the NBA's rookie salary scale, there are financial benefits for Saric to remain overseas for another year. But following the Olympic Qualifiers last weekend, he told reporters he intended to play in Philadelphia next season.

The Sixers have been in communication with Saric while he's played in Europe. Head coach Brett Brown has been corresponding with him using WhatsApp. This past season, player development assistant Chris Babcock went to Istanbul for over a week to spend time with Saric and monitor his workouts. In June, Brown and president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo also traveled to Istanbul to visit Saric.

“We think this is good timing for him,” Colangelo said on The Comcast Network's Breakfast on Broad in May.

Saric averaged 11.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24 Euroleague games this season. He shot 50 percent from the floor and 40.3 percent from three. Last weekend, he posted an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament title game and was named tourney MVP.

"For those who haven't seen him play, there will be a real excitement of how versatile he is," Brown said Tuesday on NBATV's broadcast of the Sixers’ summer league game. "There is a toughness that the city of Philadelphia is just going to fall in love with. He's a bull-in-a-china-shop type player. He can rebound, lead a break, he can hit threes — that's the thing I think I'm most excited about watching the growth of his game. He just comes with a real versatility and skill package at 6-foot-10, similar to Ben (Simmons) in some ways."

Brown has said he envisions Saric playing the "three-four." The Sixers are loaded with bigs and Saric could fit into the three-spot with the current roster. They already have first overall pick Simmons, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, Jerami Grant and Richaun Holmes in the frontcourt. Joel Embiid is expected to play this season, as well.

“If you want a guy that gives 100 percent every time, he’s such a hard worker and he wants to play on both ends of the floor,” Saric's former teammate Stephane Lasme told CSNPhilly.com at Las Vegas summer league. “He wants to play hard on defense, so hard on offense, and he tries to get every rebound.”

The 5 worst Sixers free-agent signings

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The 5 worst Sixers free-agent signings

By Noah Levick June 06, 2020 11:50 AM

NBA GMs sometimes feel the temptation to pay average or good players as if they are great.

That description applies to a few of the players listed below in our ranking of the five worst Sixers free-agent signings. For the purposes of this list, we’re reserving judgement on well-paid current Sixers.

5. Scott Williams
Then-Sixers GM and head coach John Lucas liked that Williams knew “how to win.” The big man had immediately won three championships after entering the NBA, but the fact that he was on Michael Jordan’s Bulls probably had something to do with that early success.

Signed to a seven-year contract, Williams only managed to play 212 games with the Sixers, none of which were in the postseason. He posted 5.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game before being traded to the Bucks and eventually facing the Sixers in the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals. In that series, he was suspended for Game 7 because of a hard hit to Allen Iverson’s throat in Game 6.

4. Brian Skinner
Skinner’s first stint as a Sixers was solid. Though he wasn’t used much during the 2003 playoffs, he chipped in 17.9 minutes per game during the regular season. After spending a year with the Bucks, Skinner then decided to return to the Sixers, who offered a five-year, $25 million contract.

Besides starting regularly for the first time in his career the season prior, it’s unclear what Skinner had done to merit such a lucrative deal. With Marc Jackson, Kenny Thomas and Corliss Williamson all preferred in the frontcourt by head coach Jim O’Brien, Skinner had a minimal impact, averaging 2.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 24 games. The Sixers ultimately used his contract in February to help facilitate their ill-fated trade for Chris Webber.

3. Kenny Thomas
Seven years and approximately $50 million was far too large a commitment for Thomas, who the Sixers acquired in a 2002 trade with the Rockets and then signed as a restricted free agent.

Thomas wasn’t a bad player — he even averaged a double-double in the 2003-04 season — and he would’ve been viewed in a much kinder light if GM Billy King had given him a shorter and/or less expensive contract. He joined Skinner and Williamson in that deal for Webber, wrapping up his NBA career in Sacramento.

2. Elton Brand
Brand was far from a bust as a player with the Sixers after signing his “Philly max” contract. He wasn’t a 20 points, 10 rebounds per game guy anymore, but he was decent when healthy enough to play and praised frequently for his leadership and professionalism.

Unfortunately, he suffered a season-ending torn labrum in his first year with the team. While he was a regular presence in the three years after that, he was diminished physically compared to his prime in Los Angeles. The Sixers released him with one season left on his five-year, $82 million deal under the league’s amnesty clause.

1. Matt Geiger
First, it’s important to note that Geiger’s refusal to waive his trade kicker prevented Iverson from being traded to the Pistons ahead of the 2000-01 season. It’s very unlikely the Sixers would’ve won the Eastern Conference without him.

"I looked at Detroit and didn't think Allen and I would've been better off there,” he told reporters in 2001. "So the decision was easy."

Geiger’s contract, however, was excessive — six years and approximately $48 million. He had some bright moments in Philadelphia, including a career-best 13.5 points per game in the 1998-99 season and a 5-for-7 shooting performance in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals (although he fouled out in under 14 minutes), but none of that was enough to make the contract worth it. He retired after four games in the 2001-02 season because of persistent, painful knee problems.

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2020 NBA return format: NBPA approves return to play format

By Paul Hudrick June 05, 2020 5:40 PM

A day after the NBA’s Board of Governor’s approved a 22-team return to play format, the NBPA did so Friday evening, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

All 28 player reps approved the plan, which would see 22 teams head to Walt Disney World in Florida to finish out the 2019-20 season beginning July 31. The league will play eight regular-season games with the possibility of a play-in tournament for the eighth seed. The playoffs will follow the traditional format.

One of the new pieces of information presented Friday is that there will also be two or three preseason games before the season resumes.

On TNT Thursday night, commissioner Adam Silver said the league is in the “first inning” in its quest to return to play. The NBA suspended the season on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.

According to Charania, players will undergo testing every day and there will be a minimum seven-day quarantine for any player that tests positive. If a player does contract the virus, play would continue.

“Of course we’ve always been looking for whether or not there is an appropriate and safe way that we can resume basketball,” Silver said, “and knowing that we’re going to be living with this virus for a while. … We’ve been exploring with the players whether there can be a new normal here.”

Another sticking point was a tentative date of Nov. 10 to start training camps for the 2020-21 season. Oct. 12 would be the last possible date for Game 7 of this year’s NBA Finals under this return-to-play plan. The NBPA told the players it’s “unlikely” the 2020-21 season would start on Dec. 1 and that it’s still being negotiated, per Charania.

With no fans in the stands, the two sides have also discussed pumping fan noise in courtesy of NBA2K.

The league and NBPA are still continuing to work out the health and safety details in the weeks leading up to a return.

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