The Golden State Warriors' wait is over. After two-plus weeks of rumors, Dario Saric has finally signed with the Dubs. Here are three reasons why Golden State hit the jackpot by adding the Croatian star for the minimum.
3. Frontcourt floor-spacing and playmaking
Draymond Green is an elite passer from all over the floor and one of the most creative, effective screeners in NBA history. Kevon Looney stands a level below Green in both categories, but still counts among basketball's top dribble hand-off artists and short-roll playmakers among traditional centers.
Though deficiencies in those finer concepts of team offense helped keep him glued to the bench in the playoffs, Jonathan Kuminga's explosive, versatile finishing and burgeoning comfort from deep are pivotal for the Dubs. Trayce Jackson-Davis blended the best attributes of his older teammates as a passer, screener and dive man at Indiana, but the NBA is a different beast than college, where he also attempted a grand total of three 3-point attempts across four seasons.
Golden State just didn't have a reliable floor-spacer and playmaker up front before finally adding Saric, whose natural offensive talents make him a perfect fit for Steve Kerr's offensive system.
The Warriors will enter free agency armed with minimum contract offers. @ArmstrongWinter takes a look at some top targets.https://t.co/6XoqHyBZkS
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Saric isn't Nemanja Bjelica from deep, a true marksman capable of launching and splashing from multiple feet beyond the arc. But his 8.0 attempts from deep per 100 possessions last season with the Oklahoma City Thunder were almost a career-high, and comfortably more than Bjelica's rate of 6.4 tries with the Dubs in 2021-22.
That number should bump up with Golden State, Saric taking advantage of mass attention paid to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson while opposing centers struggle to close-out to him in time to manage an effective contest. He also drained 40.4% of his catch-and-shoot triples a year ago, per NBA Stats, a personal best that aligns with Saric's increased willingness to let fly when not absolutely wide open or in perfect flow of halfcourt offense.
But it's his playmaking ability that's most exciting about Saric's addition to the Warriors. He immediately becomes the Dubs' fourth-best passer behind Paul, Green and Curry, with innate court sense and processing speed that allows him to exploit bent defenses with quick decisions.
Saric can pick out cutters and sealers from the high post, bust zones from the nail and work as a post-up hub for Golden State's famed split actions.
The Warriors' second unit regularly lacked high-level passers last season beyond Green, especially before Gary Payton II returned at the trade deadline.
Saric won't just open up the floor as a long-range shooter, creating more opportunities for Golden State to crease the paint with the dribble or pass, but also eat up that additional space as a playmaker, adding some much-needed variety and dynamism to the offense with or without Curry on the floor.
2. Chemistry with Chris Paul
Saric doesn't provide his former Phoenix Suns running mate with the high-flying lob catcher that makes Paul most dangerous in pick-and-roll. His ability to space the floor at the five should create opportunities for Kuminga and perhaps Jackson-Davis to occupy that role, but hardly means Saric will be relegated to spotting up in the weak side when the Point God runs Golden State's second unit with a healthy diet of ball screens.
Based on their time in the desert, there's a good chance Saric is Paul's most frequent partner in that two-man dance, and rightfully so. The Suns put up a 116.1 offensive rating with Saric and Paul playing together and Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton on the bench in 2020-21, ranking in the 75th percentile league-wide, per Cleaning the Glass.
The offensive staple of those Phoenix bench units? Ball screens involving Paul and Saric, actions that regularly allowed both veterans to overcome their physical limitations with nuanced skill and mind-meld understanding of timing, angles and defensive coverages.
There was bright-eyed optimism coming into last season that Golden State's young bench lineups could thrive by simplifying the offense to spam pick-and-rolls between Jordan Poole and James Wiseman. That never came close to happening, and both fixtures of the Warriors' scrapped second timeline now find themselves playing elsewhere at least in part due to their failure to find a connection—one Paul and Saric built years before coming to San Francisco.
Expect the Dubs' bench lineups to lean on it in 2023-24.
1. Stylistic and lineup flexibility up front
Saric transitioned to full-time center for the Thunder last season, his best position in an NBA vacuum as the game gets smaller and faster and he enters his 30s with a torn ACL in his recent past. But Golden State exists outside modern league archetypes, the singular presences of both Curry and Green permitting Kerr and the coaching staff to mix and match personnel surrounding them as specific in-game circumstances deem necessary.
Bringing in Saric as a reserve only extends that on-the-fly versatility and flexibility further. He shoots and passes well enough to play de facto power forward next to Green or Looney, and actually posted a higher rebound rate than the former last season, sparking optimism the Warriors could hold up on the glass with Saric playing next to Kuminga up front.
Saric is a below-average defender at this point of his career, absent the foot speed to chase shooters across the arc and overall size needed to regularly stymie basketball's best post behemoths. He's not a viable switch defender nor looming deterrent in drop coverage, either. But Saric fights hard and can be extremely physical, compensating for lackluster tools with effort and early positioning.
Bottom line: Saric gives this team potential answers on the interior it just didn't have last season. Long as they waited for him to put pen to paper, the Dubs couldn't have done better signing a free agent big at the minimum.
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