Croatian forward Dario Saric (R) blocks Spanish center Pau Gasol's last-second shot during their team's Olympic game. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Philadelphia 76ers have a strange but special problem entering the new season: head coach Brett Brown's lineup is loaded with promising young big men and he does not seem to know where to put them.
Rumors had been circling since the beginning of summer that either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor could be traded before the new season as Joel Embiid is finally ready for his NBA debut after being shelved for the last two years because of injury.
All three young stars are 7-footers and top six overall draft picks of the last three years prior to last June's NBA Draft, which makes Philly's goal of trading at least one of them valid. If you add this year's no. 1 overall selection Ben Simmons to the equation, then it gets really obvious that the Sixers are brimming with young talent.
Enter 22-year-old Croatian Dario Saric and it gets even more exciting.
Saric is also set to join Philadelphia this coming season and the 6-foot-9 power forward is set to become another key option for coach Brown's frontcourt.
Yahoo Sports reported that the Sixers have "high hopes" for the Orlando Magic's 12th overall pick of the 2014 draft. The team managed to sign him last month from Orlando and they are eager to also introduce him to the big stage together with his draft batch-mate Embiid.
In his recent game with the Croatian national team in the ongoing Olympics, Saric blocked a last-second, game-tying hook shot of NBA great Pau Gasol to complete his squad's 72-70 upset victory over former world champions Spain which had attracted the attention of everyone in the basketball world.
Kind of like the perfect self-introduction before suiting up the Sixers jersey this October.
The 2013 Croatian League Finals MVP remained humble with his feat, saying "I think that is the gift for the whole team. That block was like cherry on the cake because the team fight all the time".
But the whole world took notice, especially his incoming NBA squad and its legions of fans.
SB Nation indicated that Sixers fans have "one more reason to be excited about their future" with the arrival of Saric.
After years of being "a laughingstock, devoid of talent and hope" Philadelphia now has the chance to come out and play better than the NBA's worst club in 2016-2017.
