Skip to content
Sports
Link copied to clipboard

Stop the fight - Dario Saric is the NBA rookie of the year

Joel Embiid can't win if he concedes, right?

At this point, Embiid shouldn't get any votes for Rookie of the Year; not for third place, or second, and certainly not for first. As we mentioned before, any votes he might get would be hollow considering he didn't play even half of the season. Besides, how can Embiid get votes after he became Dario Saric's campaign manager Sunday night?

"He's the rookie of the year," Embiid said, crashing Saric's postgame TV interview after Saric's career high in points spurred a win over the Lakers on Sunday, 31 hours after playing well in the same building against the Clippers. "That's the guy."

Certainly, Embiid isn't the guy. But at this point, the issue is less about Embiid's ROY worthiness than about Saric's clear path to the award. Embiid might get votes that should go to Saric.

The farther from Embiid's truncated introduction to the NBA we get, the more absurd his candidacy looks. Embiid played limited minutes in just 31 of the Sixers' first 45 games before a knee injury ended his season. Granted, until then, Embiid was the Sixers' best player and the runaway ROY favorite. Now, any first-place votes for him would be purely ceremonial and downright derelict.

As Embiid's caucus waned, the conversation shifted not to Saric, who leads all rookies in scoring and rebounding, but to Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon. Pro-Brogdon talk grew louder a week ago when the Bucks visited Philadelphia and cruised to a win. Both Brogdon and Saric performed well; but, to bolster Brogdon's case, much was made of the Bucks' surge toward the playoffs thanks partly to Brogdon's polished play.

The flaw in that argument was that Brogdon clearly has a superior supporting cast, and fate quickly supplied evidence of Brogdon's relative value to the Bucks.

Brogdon went 1 for 8 in his next game and has missed the last two Bucks games with a back injury. The Bucks won all three games. He might be valuable, but he's not irreplaceable.

Meanwhile, Saric played three games in four days on the West Coast in which he averaged 24.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and more than 36 minutes. He set a career high with 28 points at Portland on Thursday, had 16 against the Clippers, then dropped 29 on the Lakers.

Saric has not missed a game this season. He plays with a caginess that belies his 22 years. Aware of his severe disadvantage, he tried to steal a jump ball against Blake Griffin on Saturday by hooking Griffin's elbow before the toss. He was (justifiably) called for a foul, but it was a clever little maneuver nonetheless.

He plays with relentless energy. He missed a free throw with 1 minute, 44 seconds to play, but, while teammate Jahlil Okafor lagged behind the play, Saric sprinted downcourt, defended Julius Randle, caught a pass from rebounder Gerald Henderson as Henderson fell out of bounds, sprinted up court, passed to point guard T.J. McConnell, kept running and got the pass back for a layup that gave the Sixers a lead with 1:25 left.

As for the "winning" issue:

The Sixers were 11-20 in Embiid's 31 games, a 35.5 winning percentage. They now are 7-14 since Embiid was lost for the season and Saric took over, a .333 winning percentage.

If Embiid was a runaway favorite then, Saric should be a runaway favorite now.