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Sixers' Dario Saric has struggles from three-point range

Dario Saric's three-point shooting is not going well, but there are other ways he can be effective.

Sixers forward Dario Saric shoots the basketball against Boston Celtics on Friday.
Sixers forward Dario Saric shoots the basketball against Boston Celtics on Friday.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

Zero. That's how many three-pointers Dario Saric has made through two regular season games.

He has attempted six from beyond the arc — two in Washington on Wednesday and four at home Friday against Boston.

Six shots is not a huge sample size and there is no reason to think that Saric's offseason work — elevating the arc of his shot — was all for naught. We saw him hit from three in the preseason. The shot is there. Right now, it's just not falling.

Though he's not shooting well from outside, he is still a player that can score and make a difference.

It's important to understand the difference between Saric's shot selection from Wednesday to Friday.

Saric only took five shots against the Wizards and the only one he made was at the basket. Against the Celtics, Saric was cold from outside but clearly effective in the paint, hitting 4-of-5. All of his made field goals were in the first half. He took four shots in the second half, three were outside of the paint.

"I thought Dario had a really good first half," Brown noted after the Sixers 102-92 loss to Boston.

A slump can be an uncomfortable space to live in. It screws with confidence, it causes unnecessary over analyzing, and is always accompanied by a ton of scrutiny.

Saric is in the early days of a slump. Adding to the discomfort, he's also part of Brett Brown's endless rotation experiment.

Saric has played positionless basketball before and he is not completely unfamiliar with playing as a center in a small rotation. But he is unfamiliar with this Sixers group, which makes all the difference.

"When you move Dario over to the five, because it's new in the year, there's a little uncertainty at time with play calls," Brown said.

He's only a few games into playing the small-ball five with the Sixers newly designed team. Defensively — especially in the first half — Saric handled himself well against Boston. He battled and made things difficult for Al Horford down low and finished the night with 10 rebounds and a block to go with his nine points.

Against the Celtics, Saric didn't let his cold outside shooting deter him from getting into the paint. That's where he needs to continue to grind to boost his confidence. The three-point slump will run it's course and die, but until then he needs to hang his hat where he is most effective.