After Chad Ford reported yesterday that Dario Saric is “leaning towards withdrawing from the draft”, I decided to take it upon myself to dig a little deeper. After all, I had plenty invested following a 4000+ word piece on Saric yesterday.
I reached out to several people, including Saric’s agent Robert Jablan. I asked for a quote or comment on the record regarding Saric’s status for my piece and Jablan responded with the following:
We make decision this morning that we will withdraw Dario from the 2013 draft
Best regards,
Robert Jablan
In all honesty, when the news came out yesterday that he was threatening to withdraw, I thought it was a ploy to secure a promise from a lottery team, but I don’t see any reason why his agent would lie to me to further some kind of secret agenda. It looks like it is true. Saric will pull out of this draft, and the Pelicans will now have to look elsewhere at number 6.
43 responses to “Per Dario Saric’s Agent: Decision is Made, Saric will Withdraw from Draft”
[…] Post:« Spurring Some Heated Discussion Next Post:Per Dario Saric’s Agent: Decision is Made, Saric will Withdraw from Draft » Home / Features / Everything You Need to Know About Dario Saric […]
Odd considering he seems to be a hot commodity in what’s viewed as a weak draft. Given the fact that he can be drafted and still stay in the Euro league for now would seem like the prefect time to allow some NBA team to draft his rights.
Either way I don’t like Saric as an NBA prospect. The fact that Dell Demps was rumored to be infatuated with him concerned me greatly. Can He change his mind again or is this last chance?
daThRONe He has until June 17 to make it official.
fearthepelicans daThRONe
OK I knew that was the deadline to withdraw. Wasn’t sure if it was the deadline to re-enter as well.
So who’s going to be the pick now Michael?
NemesisKING Wide, wide, wide, wide open now. If I had to handicap it today, I would say:
40%- Trade the pick (either down or for a player)
20%- Otto Porter (If he gets past Wizards, he slips to us)
15% – MCW
15% – Burke
10% – Other
Michael McNamara NemesisKING
Well since I’ll be in the Barclays center reppin’ I hope we don’t trade the pick. That would kill the excitement.
I say Porter or Oladipo at 6 and for the Jazz pick and draft Dennis Schroder.I like Burke at 6 and trade for Reggie Bullock.
I don’t get it. What does he gain by withdrawing? If he can get stashed there for another year, why take himself out of the draft? Is someone telling him that he might be a top 3 pick next year? If anything, his draft position will fall based on the (rumored) talent levels. I just don’t understand what he gains by this.
Even if next years draft is awful, the hype around it right now should have any lottery projected pick staying in this draft. Why risk it? Although I think Marcus Smart will be a great player, this is the same question I had with him. Why jeopardize his top 3 pick status?
I’m going to go ahead and hold out hope for a few days for two reasons:
1. MM is a media/blogger guy. If the agent is floating this rumor that Saric might withdraw in order to drum up interest, why would he tell the first blogger that emails him anything different? This site gets looked at enough that the info would get passed around the internet pretty quickly, and of course squashing his rumor mill.
2. Saric is 19 and just won the championship. I believe he was the MVP of the game as well? Everyone over there absolutely loves him right now, he’s probably getting laid 3 times before he even has breakfast every morning, and in general he’s riding a really awesome wave of high emotion. Maybe in a few days he starts to calm down and think about all this a bit more rationally.
Do I sound desperate? In denial? Maybe I am, but logically it just doesn’t make sense to me. If anyone can convince me otherwise I’m willing to listen to reason.
Bigeauz You sound like this is 2014 and we have the number 1 pick and Andrew Wiggins just pulled out of the draft vs Dario Saric pulling out of the 2013 draft
NemesisKING Bigeauz I’m not as heartbroken as that posts sounds, I just don’t understand his reasoning. I’m not comparing him to Wiggins or anything. But based on current info he will likely be a lower pick next year, which means less money (and in a buyout situation). He could get on a better initial contract and still stay overseas for another year. Just doesn’t make sense to me.
And btw, didn’t mean to use “blogger” in a deragatory sense. I’m not sure what to call the team here, as blogger doesn’t do credit to the amount of writing and research that they do, but they’re not quite full time media pro’s either. (At least I think that’s the case. Not sure)
Bigeauz Jan Vesely made a similar decision not that long ago and still ended up being drafted highly. This isn’t unheard of. Saric doesn’t feel he’s ready to move on to the NBA.
PelicanFever Bigeauz Fair point, but the lack of risk mitigation here is surprising. He might still go high, not saying he won’t. But why take the chance when you can still get another year of development in Croatia while locked in at a better salary when you do come over?
This guy would play if he was drafted in the top 10 in the draft.If he stood in the draft and was drafted between 11 to 30 he would stay overseas it’s simple as that.
Bigeauz Remember he has a buyout with his team in Europe – and the rules around re-negotiating contracts with a european team are more relaxed than those here in the US. His performance could earn him more money on a new contract – especially when you consider that the guaranteed portion of an NBA rookie contract for him will be about $6 million or so. $1 million of which he’d have to hand his team.
It could be all about the benjamins.
You are right, though. His unknown nature right now may be inflating his stock. It’s a gamble, but to him, it’s gambling future potential earnings against hard cash being offered right now.
ryanschwan Bigeauz Ah, ok. So you’re saying he might renegotiate for a bigger deal in Croatia? I think I’m starting to see now. I was looking at the money side thinking that a (likely) higher draft position would help with his buyout, but if he can get paid more in Croatia next year…I think I get it now. Thanks.
Kind of surprised. While he wasn’t a guaranteed Top 3 prospect, everyone seemed to indicate anywhere from 6-10 would be where he’d get snapped up. Maybe he saw those teams and didn’t feel like going to Sacramento, Detroit or Minnesota. Or maybe he did feel like he’d rather stay in Europe — not surprising that a 19-year old balks at leaving everything he knows behind for a strange new place. And if he’s as good as is said, he may think another year in Europe will vault him into that Top 3 spot with Wiggins and Smart.
As for the Pelicans, well, this takes an option off the table. May not have been as popular an option with some as taking a known commodity like Burke or McCollum, but it was an option. I don’t like getting hemmed in, but it’s tough to see how one of those two guys doesn’t vault to the top of the team’s draft board.
That’s a shame. That piece had me pretty excited. At least Michael can take solace in the fact that his journalism can jumpstart the NBA business machine!
To those suggesting this is the agent sticking to his story: as far as I know, Saric’s camp was reported to be “considering” withdrawing. This agent has told MM that they’re flat-out done. There’s no ambiguity left by that email. Brinksmanship stops working when you actually detonate the bomb.
By the way, guys, the dropdown menu for “About” at the top of the site is broken in IE8 (yeah, I know…).
twowatt8 what do you mean? it just doesn’t drop down?
I apologize, I should’ve been clearer. The box doesn’t stay dropped down once the moused is rolled off of “About” and onto the menu itself. jQuery magic, I tell you. I’ve had the same problems before as well.
IE 8.0.7601.1.17514, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (32-bit), by the way.
twowatt8 XP Chrome as well. Same issue. You can get to it by just clicking “About” but yeah, the menu disappears as soon as you try to click on a writers name.
JabberWalker twowatt8 That’s not exactly broken. For some reason, it is picky about movement. Try to move medium-quickly. I adjusted on the other site, but I’ll try the same this time. Thanks for taking the time to tell me about this. That’s the only way we’ll get better.
Jason Calmes JabberWalker twowatt8 That was the first thing I tried before typing that original comment, because that is the exact problem I was having last time I touched JavaScript. Unfortunately, it’s not pace-dependent. It flat out will not stay dropped unless my mouse hovers over “About.”
Glad to be of help anyway I can ^^
twowatt8 Jason Calmes JabberWalker Ok, guys. Two things. Check the menu, then complain or confirm it’s mo betta.
Jason Calmes twowatt8 JabberWalker Definitely mo betta, sir. Nice work!
twowatt8 Jason Calmes JabberWalker No problem. Thanks for pointing it out.
It takes a village.
Well, now we have one less player to talk about. I’m slowing thinking we will trade the pick.
This is pretty exciting: both NBC and CBS have quoted this article in the past hour.
Sergey Karasev should draw the Pels intrest i know im not big on euro talent but to me i think he’s better than Saric.
Papa Pelican I love the idea of having a 3 and D guy at SF. He’s definitely got one of those down.
This sucks
Hell, I’d just jumped aboard the Saric wagon. Welp, back aboard the Len/Burke wagon.
I was always concerned Saric gave Dell a ‘definitely will be there at 6’ non-PG option to exercise merely because we (Dell) had drafted Rivers the previous year. I still am concerned about us not choosing BPA by steering clear of a PG because of Rivers. If Porter fall to us, great. But otherwise I expect our choices to consist of pick of the PGs, Len, or Zeller, and I consider Len and Zeller reaches at 6 (and Zeller is a PF, a position where we are loaded).
In the end, and with Saric withdrawn, I trust in Dell and expect him to draft BPA, which will likely be Burke or McCollum.
As Much As I want To Believe That This Is The End Of This Story I’m Not So Sure I Guess We Will Have To Wait Til June 17 To See If The Book Is Really Closed
Congratulations in the scoop
Never stepped foot on the Saric bandwagon. I bet Demos would have taken this kid though.
Demps.
SI is now reporting that he’s going to delay submitting the paperwork. Looks like the door isn’t completely closed.
Smart. I never saw what the rush was. They have until the 17th. Why not use every second?
[…] Michael did a fantastic, in-depth analysis of Dario Saric and his outlook for the Pelicans only to have Saric’s agent tell him that this may not be a possibility. […]