Dario Saric Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Thornton, Hardaway Jr., Wallace

December 17th, 2014 at 8:01pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With Dwyane Wade‘s injury history and the lack of production from the bench, one possibility for the Heat to correct this deficiency is Celtics shooting guard Marcus Thornton, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes. Miami wanted to sign Thornton this past offseason, but Thornton was unable to come to terms on a buyout arrangement with Boston, Jackson notes. In 20 games for the Celtics this season, Thornton has averaged 8.2 points and is nailing 42.3% of his three-pointers. The 27-year-old is currently suffering from a small tear in his left calf and is expected to miss a few weeks of action.

Here’s more from the East:

The deal with the Nets that garnered Boston three first round draft picks, but also required the Celtics to take back Gerald Wallace‘s bloated contract is looking better for Boston every day, Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com writes. Though Boston would jump at the chance to trade Wallace and the remaining $10.1MM that he is owed for next season, the veteran is providing value as a leader and a spot defender, notes Forsberg.
With J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert currently out for the Knicks with injuries, Tim Hardaway Jr. has been struggling with his increased minutes, but Hardaway says the pressure to make his case for more playing time in the future isn’t a factor in his struggles, Fred Kerber of The New York Post writes. “I’m not going to hold my head. I’m not going to get frustrated,” Hardaway said. “I’ve just got to go in the gym and work on it. I’ve got to see the ball going in the basket. That’s what I’m going to do.”
The play of Sixers‘ 2014 first-rounder Dario Saric overseas has Philadelphia’s coaches and front office excited for the future, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Saric is currently the only player in the Turkish Basketball League who is averaging at least 11.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists, notes Pompey. “I pay attention to him [in] all the games he plays,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “I’ll go and either watch a portion or all of it or highlights. We play text tag all the time. [GM] Sam [Hinkie] was just over there last week. The exciting thing is he’s ours. He will be a Philadelphia 76er and we all have to be excited about that.“

And-Ones: Internationals, Crowder, Cavs

November 12th, 2014 at 10:55pm CST by Alex Lee

With Rockets and Timberwolves playing below the border and the Blazers scoring 111 points in the first three quarters in Denver, the NBA’s Wednesday night has been anything but normal. As the final quarter ticks away in Mexico City, let’s look at some news and notes from around the league:

David Pick of Basketball Insiders includes Vasilije Micic (Sixers), Alex Abrines (Thunder), Davis Bertans (Spurs), Dario Saric (Sixers), Nikola Jokic (Nuggets) and Bogdan Bogdanovic (Suns) on his list of six international draft-and-stashes who could contribute in the NBA now.
In a chat with readers, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News calls the Mavericks‘ Jae Crowder a “keeper in this league” on a good team. Crowder will hit restricted free agency after this season, but has not really gotten an opportunity to put his skills on display thus far in his third NBA season, as Sefko adds.
Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders provides an extensive evaluation of how the Cavaliers have handled building around their trio of stars, for this and the coming years. As Duncan points out, the Anderson Varejao extension now looks a bit riskier considering the team’s defense struggles. Duncan opines that locking up fellow big Tristan Thompson might be shrewd since the Varejao deal has limited any other options.

Eastern Notes: Saric, Hamilton, Thibodeau

October 16th, 2014 at 5:57pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Dario Saric is unlikely to end up signing with the Sixers this season even as his father threatens to find a way out of the forward’s deal with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, sources tell Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com. Shorr-Parks hears there’s no buyout clause in the Efes deal, so Saric couldn’t come to NBA next season, either, as he hinted he might, unless Anadolu Efes consents.

Here’s more from the east:

Positions won’t play much into the Sixers‘ thinking when the team decides on its opening night roster, as coach Brett Brown said, notes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’m not out to construct an incredibly well-balanced team,” Brown said. “If we’ve got to tilt because we’ve got a bunch of interesting wings, then that’s the way we will go. … This team is going to be fluid, as we all know.”
Jordan Hamilton said he knows he’s working to impress not just the Raptors but for the other 29 teams, too, in case Toronto doesn’t retain his partially guaranteed contract come opening night, tweets Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Hamilton is up against Greg Stiemsma and Will Cherry, each of whom has the same $25K partial guarantee, with seemingly one regular season roster spot to go around for the three.
There’s more talk around the Bulls that the team will give Tom Thibodeau a raise than that the coach will be on his way out of Chicago in the foreseeable future, as USA Today’s Sam Amick writes in a piece that sizes up the job security of all 30 coaches.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Saric, Thompson, Carter-Williams

October 14th, 2014 at 3:50pm CST by Chuck Myron

The father of lottery pick Dario Saric is upset about his son’s lack of playing time for Turkey’s Anadolu Efes and is threatening to end his son’s deal with the Euroleague team, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. Predrag Saric said he’ll look for someone who would finance a buyout if his son, whose NBA rights belong to the Sixers, doesn’t start to see the floor soon, as he told Hrvoje Slišković of Jutarnji.hr, a outlet in Saric’s native Croatia. Dario agreed to a long-term contract with Efes shortly before the draft, one that was to keep him out of the NBA for at least this season and likely until 2016, but it’s not clear if Predrag’s agitation is a precursor to an early NBA jump, particularly since he’s advocated in the past for his son to remain in Europe. There’s more on the Sixers in our look around the league:

There have been conflicting reports about whether Klay Thompson is asking for the maximum salary in an extension with the Warriors, but Thompson’s father says it’s indeed the max that he’s after. Mychal Thompson made his comments Monday on his own ESPNLosAngeles radio show (audio link), as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes.
Mychal, a former Lakers player, also signaled that he’d like to see his son play for the Lakers at some point, Leung observes in the same piece.
Sixers coach Brett Brown clarified to reporters that the team never gave a recovery timetable for Michael Carter-Williams, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Carter-Williams said yesterday that he was told when his shoulder surgery took place in May that he would be out six to nine months. Indeed, Philly’s release at the time stated that there was no timetable. Pompey and other reporters gave a two-to-four month estimate shortly after the surgery based on the way others have come back from the injury.
Shawn Marion, who left Dallas for the Cavs this summer, still has a bitter taste in his mouth from the Mavs‘ decision to let go of Tyson Chandler soon after the team won the championship in 2011, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to defend [our title],” Marion said.

Eastern Notes: Monroe, Celtics, Saric

September 7th, 2014 at 12:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There are two remote possibilities for the Pistons to keep Greg Monroe past this season, Perry A. Farrell of the Detroit Free Press writes. The first way would be for Detroit to offer Monroe a max contract, something they have been unwilling to do thus far, Farrell notes. The second would be for coach Stan Van Gundy to convince Monroe that his future would be best served by staying with the Pistons, something that can only happen if Detroit starts winning, opines Farrell.

Here’s more from the east:

Sixers coach Brett Brown was in Spain to check out Dario Saric, the No. 12 overall draft pick that Philadelphia acquired from the Magic in a draft night trade, Rigas Dardalis of Eurohoops.net reports. Saric won’t play in the NBA this season, but when asked what he thought of Saric’s potential, Brown said, “I think he can play [in the NBA] now! I think that in Philadelphia we are about development and about opportunity. He would look around and see a lot of fellow young players that just want a chance to play. Our whole emphasis in Philadelphia is about development and help our players. We are trying to be as good as we can be in sport science and growing up players physically and from a skill perceptive. He is an other one of our young lottery picks that we hope to grow the program with”.
Celtics team president Rich Gotham is excited for the potential of Boston’s two first-rounders, Marcus Smart and James Young, Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com writes. “I’ve been loving Marcus Smart’s play, because he’s just tough. He goes out there and he competes. I saw James Young for the first time the other day, and I saw him stroke a couple of lefty 3-pointers from a couple feet beyond the arc and I was like, Hmmm, we could use that.”
One single play may have led to David Blatt becoming the first European coach to make the jump to being an NBA head coach with the Cavs, and Ettore Messina becoming an assistant with the Spurs, Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News writes.
The crew over at Basketball Insiders ran down their predictions for the Sixers 2014/15 season, and the consensus was that Philadelphia would finish fifth in the Atlantic Division and miss the playoffs yet again.

Draft Fallout: Sixers, Saric, Heat, McGary

June 27th, 2014 at 3:10am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers never made a run at trading for the No. 1 pick in spite of the rumors to the contrary, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That seems hard to believe given the volume of chatter about Philly’s supposed pursuit of Andrew Wiggins, whom the Cavs wound up taking with the top pick. Still, the Sixers wound up with Joel Embiid, who had been the front-runner to go No. 1 before he broke his foot. Philadelphia will have to wait on Embiid, who went third overall, as well as No. 12 selection Dario Saric, whose rights they obtained from the Magic. There’s news on Saric among the continuing reverberations from Thursday’s draft:

Saric says he might come to the NBA in one year rather than two, as had been the assumption, but he’d have to discuss it with Anadolu Efes Pilson, his team in Turkey, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
The Heat didn’t consult with LeBron James on their trade to acquire Shabazz Napier, though his affection for the former Connecticut point guard was no secret, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.
The Thunder promised Mitch McGary that they’d draft him at No. 21, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Rumors had suggested the Hornets and Bucks instead had given him a promise. Charlotte had interest, tweets Jeff Zillgitt, but Oklahoma City snapped him up before the Hornets could take him at No. 24.
Serbian shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, whom the Suns took at No. 27, is one or two years away from joining Phoenix, GM Ryan McDonough said, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic notes (on Twitter). No. 50 pick Alec Brown is also expected to play in Europe next season rather than sign this summer with the Suns, according to Coro.
Undrafted Canisius guard Billy Baron is drawing interest from several teams who’d like to bring him to training camp in addition to summer league, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter).
The Rockets are highly interested in Patric Young, while the Hawks, Thunder and Grizzlies eye LaQuinton Ross and the Raptors, Pacers and Spurs are keen on Aaron Craft, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (All Twitter links). It’s unclear if the interest is in regard to training camp or merely summer league.

Sixers, Magic Swap Elfrid Payton, Dario Saric

June 26th, 2014 at 9:35pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:35pm: The trade is official, the Magic announce via press release. The Magic get Payton, and the Sixers get Saric, a 2015 second-round pick, and the 2017 first-round pick that Philadelphia sent to the Magic in the Howard/Bynum trade.

8:10pm: The Sixers are getting back the 2017 first-rounder they sent to the Magic in the four-team Dwight Howard/Andrew Bynum trade, Wojnarowski tweets. Presumably, that’s the 2017 first-rounder Berger was referring to.

7:55pm: The Sixers are sending 10th overall pick Elfrid Payton to the Magic for Dario Saric, the No. 12 selection, tweets Chad Ford of ESPN.com. Orlando is sending its 2017 first-rounder, top-11 protected, to the Sixers, and that protection goes to top-eight for 2018, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). The Magic will also give up a 2015 second-round pick, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter).

Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Knicks, Dalembert

June 26th, 2014 at 11:00am CST by Zachary Links

Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe spoke to rival execs who offered up anonymous advice for Celtics GM Danny Ainge heading into tonight’s draft. “You’ve got to get Love,” said one Western Conference scout. “You could argue or suggest that you roll the dice on Andrew Wiggins being an All-Pro or Joel Embiid being the next dominant center, but you can’t argue that anybody at 6 and 17 will be better than what Kevin Love, barring injury, will be for a minimum of the next 10 years. You’re basically dealing for one of the conservatively 10 best players in basketball. You can’t turn that down.” Meanwhile, another exec says Boston should hold on to their two first-round choices. Here’s more from around the league..

Marc Berman of the New York Post (on Twitter) hears that the Knicks have no intention of waiving Samuel Dalembert to turn their taxpayer mini midlevel exception to a full mid-level exception of $5MM. The Knicks like the shot blocker and want him on the roster this season.
It’s hard to get read on how far Dario Saric will fall, tweets Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Several lottery teams liked him before he signed his deal in Turkey and one exec thinks that the Celtics at No. 17 is his floor.
Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com wonders if the Tyson Chandler deal can help the Knicks hold on to Carmelo Anthony.
A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (on Twitter) opines that the Celtics won’t land Love today as they have a better shot of getting a deal done in-season.
The Knicks acquired a $3,637,073 trade exception equal to the salary of Raymond Felton in Wednesday’s trade with the Mavericks. Meanwhile, the Mavs get a trade exception worth $1,536,960 from Shane Larkin’s salary.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Dario Saric To Stay Out Of NBA For 2 More Years

June 25th, 2014 at 11:52am CST by Chuck Myron

WEDNESDAY, 11:52am: Saric said today that he’s definitely opting out of his deal in 2016 and coming to the NBA at that point, Sportando tweets.

10:05pm: The NBA buyout on Saric’s new contract is $800K, reports Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net, who confirms that the third year is an option. That amount is larger than the amount NBA teams are allowed to pay without the money counting against the cap. The deal also nets him the equivalent of only roughly $2.72MM over the course of the three seasons, much less than the $8.27MM figure cited when he and the team were rumored to have a deal in March.

TUESDAY: 9:39am: Saric has officially signed his deal in Turkey, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).

MONDAY, 9:42am: The Nuggets are hesitant to draft him, Ford writes in his full story, as are the Sixers and Magic, who hold picks Nos. 10 and 12, respectively. Conversely, the Hawks, Celtics, Suns and Bulls, who all hold picks in the 15-19 range, are comfortable with drafting him and waiting for him, according to Ford. The ESPN scribe also says the deal includes a player option for the third season of the deal, so it’s not entirely clear if there would be a buyout involved if an NBA team wanted to bring him over for the 2016/17 season.

9:21am: Dario Saric has an agreement in principle with Anadolu Efes Pilson of Turkey on a three-year deal that would keep him out of the NBA for at least the next two seasons, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Ford echoes his report from March indicating the same, though later dispatches put the brakes on that idea. Agent Misko Raznatovic also denied that initial report was true, but it appears as though he and Saric have indeed decided to keep the talented forward out of the NBA for now.

There’s a strong chance that the Nuggets will take Saric anyway with the No. 11 pick, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia, who notes that Efes will pay a $1.2MM buyout to pry Saric from KK Cibona, his current team. Saric will likely end up in the NBA in 2016, but the NBA club that selects him in this year’s draft would have to pay a buyout to extract him from his deal with Efes, Carchia tweets. The terms of that buyout for 2016 are unclear.

The notion of whether Saric would declare for this year’s draft was the subject of much back-and-forth, fueled in part by his father and a former agent. Still, Saric entered the draft, and he remained in past Monday’s deadline to withdraw. The 6’10” 20-year-old is the eighth-ranked prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress listings, while Ford has him at No. 9.

Ford’s Latest: Bulls, Sixers, Lakers, Afflalo

June 23rd, 2014 at 11:28am CST by Chuck Myron

The latest Insider-only mock draft from Chad Ford of ESPN.com is full of rumors, draft-related and otherwise. Let’s dive in and hit the highlights:

The Bulls are offering Taj Gibson, Tony Snell, and the 16th and 19th picks in this year’s draft to the Wolves, Ford hears. That’s presumably as part of a Kevin Love package, though Ford doesn’t make it clear exactly what Chicago wants back in return for those assets.
The Sixers continue to explore the idea of a Michael Carter-Williams trade as they seek another top-10 pick. The Lakers would like to acquire Carter-Williams and Thaddeus Young for No. 7 and Steve Nash, but they’ve gained no traction on that proposal, according to Ford.
The Magic have offered picks Nos. 4 and 12 plus Arron Afflalo to the Cavs and Bucks as they attempt to move into the top two, but neither Milwaukee nor Cleveland has bitten. They’re also dangling Afflalo to the Kings and Nuggets for the eighth and 11th selections, respectively.
The Bucks are looking for an additional lottery pick, Ford reports, citing “serious” interest from other teams in Larry Sanders, John Henson and Brandon Knight. The Nuggets have spoken with Milwaukee about the No. 11 pick, according to Ford.
A source close to both the Nuggets and Dario Saric deny that Denver has given him a promise to draft him at No. 11.
There are several other medical issues that came up in Joel Embiid‘s physical in addition to his foot and back, sources tell Ford. It’s unclear how much concern there is regarding them.