The father of lottery prospect Dario Saric reiterated to Tomislav Gabelić of 24sata that he doesn’t feel his son is ready for the NBA, suggesting that Spanish team Real Madrid is in contention to sign the 6’10” forward, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com notes (Twitter links). That lends credence to the notion that his rumored deal with Efes Pilson of Turkey never came to fruition. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress recently wrote that Dario Saric is almost certain to enter the draft, and while sources confirm to Pick that Saric is indeed draft-bound, they believe he’ll nonetheless sign with a European club, becoming a “draft-and-stash” player. There’s more on Saric amid the latest on the draft, as we detail:
- The stumbling block for many European teams that would pursue Saric is that only a few of them can afford his buyout from KK Cibona, the club for which he currently plays, tweets Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. Saric’s father also confirms that agent Robert Jablan no longer represents his son, who is without an agent, Carchia notes via Twitter.
- An earlier report indicated that Andrew Wiggins was expected to sign with agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, but Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com hears that Paul never recruited Wiggins. Instead, Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports and one other agency are contending for Wiggins, Haynes writes.
- Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports lists his top 10 international prospects, with Saric right behind Australian point guard Dante Exum, who occupies the No. 1 spot.