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Dario Saric: Dario's frustration with a diminished role and less minutes has been well-documented, but this week he saw a nice uptick in his playing time. In a loss to Olympiacos, Saric played 25 minutes and put together a real nice showing on NBATV, posting 11 points on 2-of-2 shooting from beyond the arc, and also stringing together ten boards and four assists in a loss. He slotted into the starting lineup for Bryant Brunson (former undrafted Fordham center) after a thread of games coming off the bench in a minuscule role.
A couple days later he was back in the starting lineup again for a Euroleague contest against Besiktas, this time filling in for an injured Derrick Brown (former Xavier power forward, 2009 second-round pick). He cracked 30 minutes in another tough loss for Efes, compiling 12 points, six rebounds and a couple of turnovers on 5-for-8 shooting from the field (1-of-3 from distance). As basketball-reference pointed out, Saric is now putting together a 17.8 points, 10.6 boards, 3.3 dimes (to 2.2 turnovers) and 2.3 threes per 36 in Euroleague play. In ten games, both Euroleague and BSL play, he's converting on 42 percent of his triples thus far this season (11-of-26). Finding consistency will be the key, as his outside game has been notoriously unsteady, but with a return potentially to his previous semi-major role in the offense, it'll be interesting to monitor going forward.
It's also worth noting that Saric's teammate, 2016 draft darling Furkan Korkmaz saw just 15 combined minutes over the course of these two games. It's going to be tough to gauge what he can do at the next level if his role remains as insignificant as it is currently.
Vasilije Micic: The Sixers' 2014 second-round pick finally cracked the rotation, playing his first six minutes of the season in a loss to ALBA Berlin. He didn't do anything of significance - a missed field goal, a pair of free throws and two turnovers - but his inclusion in the rotation offers some hope that we can see more of what he's capable of going forward.