What kind of situation would Dario Saric have to be in where European fans would stop complaining that he’s being mis- or under-utilized? Note that I’m not saying he isn’t being under-utilized in Phoenix. It seems to me that he’s not being used to his full potential right now. But it seems like that, even if he was being used to his full potential, there would be an army of Croats who insist that his coach hates him and his teammates all freeze him out of the offense because they’re jealous of his skills.
I think, in general, most Saric fans were content with his role during his sophomore season, which was spent with the Sixers. There, he averaged 15/6/4 on the best efficiency of his career, and was a major part of the offense, providing scoring punch behind Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. But if I were to go back to view their comments from that time, I’m sure many of them thought that Saric’s point forward ability was being squandered by the presence of fellow point forward Ben Simmons.
Clearly, nobody was happy with Saric’s time in Minnesota, and Phoenix isn’t any better. But Saric isn’t a superstar in the league. He’s not even an All-Star, and unless my scouting abilities are failing me, his peak would be a fringe All-Star candidate at best. No team is going to make him the primary focus, but that’s what it would take for the citizenry of Croatia to be convinced that he’s being used to his fullest potential. Until he averages the “Rookie Tyreke Evans” of 20/5/5 for some team that wins thirty games, Croats will be demanding trades for him and writing encoded comments on my videos that are probably dissing his dumb American coaches.