It says a lot about the current state of NBA rookie-dom that Dario Saric, who has been struggling mightily, is still probably the second-best first-year player so far this season. After Joel Embiid, of course, who has already won ROY. Have rookies always been this bad? Most of them usually are, but there’s normally more than ONE having at least a slightly above-average season.
Saric may or may not pick it up as the season goes on. It’s hard to tell with him if his shooting woes will continue. How’s that for a hot take? Here’s another one: the 76ers should play a whole game with him as the literal point guard and see what happens. The Bucks tried that with Giannis Antetokounmpo in his rookie year and it was a total disaster, so if it’s a total disaster for Saric you know you have a future superstar beast on your hands. That’s how stuff like this works, right? I think so.
If anything, that ankle-annihilating move on Jonas Jerebko should give Saric some confidence moving forward. Knowing you ended someone’s career always gave me strength to continue on in the face of adversity, anyway. R.I.P. Stylish80.