In his third NBA season, 24-year old Dario Šarić has been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves from the Philadelphia 76ers, ESPN has reported. Arguably Croatia’s best basketball player, ‘The Homie’ has averaged 30 minutes, 11 points and six rebounds for the Sixers this year in what was expected to be a season that ended with at least an Eastern Conference semifinals appearance.
Šarić, Robert Covington, Jaryd Bayless and a 2022 2nd Round pick are going to the Wolves while the Sixers receive disgruntled All-Star Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton.
The Wolves have a young core with Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony-Towns leading the way. Šarić and his outside shooting should play nicely in Minnesota.
Šarić Interview With CroatianSports.com In 2016
Philly got impatient, they had a good core of young players who were going to hit their peak in the next few years, I guess they didn’t want to wait, butler will start annoying Simmons & Embiid pretty soon
I like Saric but Minnesota is a graveyard.
As far as basketball goes.
Minnesota turned Zach Lavine and whoever else they gave for butler into Saric and Covington, IMO bad trade by 6ers fultz is a fraud
Philly offered faultz Covington and a pick and minn demanded more. They have the money to resign jimmy
Very good read on the trade by the Ringer:
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/10/18082584/jimmy-butler-sixers-trade-the-process
Saric was never struggling.
He starts his NBA seasons slow because he plays for Croatia in the summers, and takes September off for vacation. Now that the NBA season starts much earlier (mid-October) be shows up to camp out of form and uses the first month of the NBA season to get into game shape.
This happened in each of his two seasons before this one. He started poorly now, but lately looks like he’s been getting into game shape. He will do well in Minnesota, but it’s not because of a change of scenery. It’s because he always does this.
The only thing that can hurt him now is if his new coach (Tom Thibodeau) benches him in favor of his coach’s pet (Taj Gibson)…but if this happens, he will play too well to be benched for long. This kept happening in Philly, but he willed himself into the starting lineup each of the past two years. He’s a winner.
He was the heart of that Philly team. Such a tough loss for them.
Jimmy Butler is a star though, and should take them to another level.
But Jimmy has a three-year window, and both Embiid and Simmons are sophmores in their early 20s. It kinda doesn’t make sense to do this right now, especially with the Warriors still dominating. It made more sense to look to trade for top players closer in age with their core group.
They messed up by not going harder after Kawhi Leonard in the offseason, and are trying to make up for it by biting too quickly on a much older and more injury prone player.
If they made this shorter term move and STILL remain behind the Raptors, Bucks and Celtics…it will no go over well.
Šarić is a baller, I have faith that he will do well where ever he lands.
Saw this on some feed:
Winner: Dario Saric
Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
Saric has struggled in his third season in Philadelphia with his offensive role lost in the shuffle next to Simmons and Embiid. In Minnesota, he will have the opportunity to be featured more in the offense and slot into the frontcourt next to Towns to provide a versatile offensive threat.
Saric will be eligible for an extension on his rookie contract this offseason, and a bigger role with the Timberwolves is more likely to get him paid than the secondary role he was struggling to adapt to in Philly. The Timberwolves have big contracts on the books for Towns, Andrew Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng, but if Saric turns his season around in a new environment and shows himself to be a future building block, he’ll be in a good position when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.
Risky trade by Philly.
They are a team of the future, but I guess they got antsy and want to contend now.
They screwed up badly by trading away the Tatum pick and a second lottery pick for Markelle Fultz.
Now they traded away two solid starters in Šarić and Covington for Jimmy.
Jimmy is a star, but injury prone and will be 30 at the end of the season. He can also leave as a free agent, so they need to throw a five-year max contract to ensure that the stays. He won’t last beyond three years of that, but they’ll be better in the meantime (assuming there are no chemistry issues).
Minnesota did extremely well considering Jimmy was leaving. Got two excellent starters that could vault them into the playoffs (and Šarić being a good young future piece with Towns).