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Recapping Dario Saric’s Performance Against Italy in Olympic Qualifying Tournament Group Play

Adrian Fedkiw|

The road to Croatia’s eventual Olympic Qualifying Tournament title began with a speed bump.

Dario Saric had 11 points and 10 rebounds, but Croatia lost its opener of the OQT to Italy 67-60 in group play.

Saric was just 4-of-14 from the floor, but looked better in the post than the other games I’ve seen. He got himself open moving away from the ball and in pick-and-pop situations, but it was simply an off night for him shooting the basketball.

The OQT featured six teams and two groups with a trio of squads apiece. Tunisia was the other team in Italy and Croatia’s group. Only the winner of the tournament moved on to Rio and the Olympics.

Let’s take a look at some Saric clips from this highly-entertaining contest.

I’m not a fan of Saric’s perimeter defense and think it’s the are he needs most improvement on. Here’s Saric matched up defensively against Danilo Gallinari, who first causes separation away from the ball by faking the screen and drifting to the left wing. Then Saric bites on the pump fake and doesn’t offer much resistance on Gallinari’s drive to the basket.

Saric got matched up against Alessandro Gentile on a switch and the Italian creates a lot of separation on his jump stop in the paint, but misses the short jumper. Saric is going to struggle against the more athletic stretch forwards in the NBA who have to ability to get to the basket.

This is much better defense on Gallinari’s right wing drive, holding his ground beautifully.

A couple things here, first look at Saric run the floor. He had a step on Marco Belinelli and could’ve gotten the pass for the easy basket. Then he had the mismatch in the post, which is something I’ve seen him struggle with and turn the ball. Not in this instance, however. He uses his vision and passing ability to notice Krunoslav Simon’s man collapse in the paint. The second he does, Saric hits Simon with a perfect chest pass and he swishes the open 3. You won’t be able to double-team Saric with that passing ability.

Look at at this lovely spin by Saric along the baseline on Luigi Datome before going up for the reverse finish.

Croatia went to Saric a lot on this isolation play along the left side of the floor. He backs down his defender and goes to his fadeaway jumper. This was pretty. I haven’t seen Saric be able to create a lot of space on his post moves, but is able to create distance with this fadeaway, which I’ve seen a few times.

Here’s some more post passing, Saric hits a streaking Bojan Bogdanovic down lane with a perfect bounce pass.

This is something I’ve seen too much in the post where Saric loses balance and turns it over.

Saric had an off night shooting, but found the open spaces. This was one of the few shots he hit.

Here’s where Saric is most comfortable, facing up with the ball in his hands in isolation. He lulls his defender to sleep before rising and knocking down the left baseline jumper.

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