Free agency lulled Nuggets fans to sleep, only to jolt them awake at last.
Croatian big man Dario Saric and the Nuggets have agreed to a two-year, $10.6 million contract with a player option on the second year, a league source told The Denver Post on Saturday. An eight-year NBA veteran, Saric has played with five teams, most recently averaging 8.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Golden State Warriors last season.
Saric, 30, has also reprised his national team role this summer at Croatia’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. He registered a 19-point triple-double against Slovenia in a group stage win last week, while Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth was in attendance for the tournament in Piraeus, Greece. Croatia will face the Greek national team in Sunday’s final with a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics on the line.
Denver was one of the last teams that hadn’t acquired a new player yet this offseason. The dilemma with Saric was his own. As of Saturday, he was still in the process of deciding whether he wanted to play in the NBA or Europe next season, according to a league source. Multiple NBA teams were showing interest in him, as well as the Greek club Panathinaikos.
In 2016, Saric was on the Croatian Olympic squad that got eliminated by Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the Rio de Janeiro quarterfinals. Now Saric is coming to Denver to be Jokic’s backup center. He’s joining a crowded frontcourt that includes Zeke Nnaji, DaRon Holmes II and likely Cancar and DeAndre Jordan.
Nnaji has been in and out of the rotation for his entire four-year career, so Nuggets coach Michael Malone may envision Saric as a more reliable veteran option to play small-ball center. And Denver’s front office views the first-round draft pick Holmes as more of a four than a five — a key reason the Nuggets still saw it necessary to pursue another bench big in the free agent market.
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Saric was drafted 12th overall in 2014 by Orlando, which traded his rights to Philadelphia on draft night. After spending the next two years under contract with the Turkish club Anadolu Efes, he came to the NBA and finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2016-17. He has played stints with the 76ers, Timberwolves, Suns, Thunder and Warriors.
Saric should provide another floor-spacing option for the Nuggets’ second unit. Since returning from an ACL injury that sidelined him for the 2021-22 season, he has shot 38.1% from 3-point range the last two years.
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