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Things may not have gone that well for Croatia in this year's EuroBasket tournament, but it was a nice showing from Dario Saric. The Sixers first-round pick in 2014 started every game for Croatia, and had enough highlights to satiate Sixers fans for (at least) another season.
The national media recognized the 21-year-old's strong play too. ESPN's Kevin Pelton listed him as a "standout" in his article detailing EuroBasket's top performers.
It was a disappointing EuroBasket performance for traditional power Croatia, which was blown out by the Czech Republic in the round of 16. Saric wasn't necessarily to blame, averaging 9.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game -- though his 2.8 turnovers suggest the downside of having him handling the ball extensively. Saric also shot just 4-of-15 (26.7 percent) beyond the arc. He maintains he wants to join Philadelphia next season, though waiting another year would untie Saric from the rookie scale and potentially make him more money.
He definitely needs to improve his shooting ability from beyond the arc, but one thing we know Saric can do is stuff the stat sheet. There's still a lot of potential for Dario to tap into, but I'd expect his future role with the Sixers will be more like a Swiss Army Knife than anything else.
If you want to catch Dario play for his club team in Turkey, Anadolu Efes starts Euroleague action on October 16.