Croatian basketball player Dario Šarić has been named Rookie of the Month in the East Conference, the NBA announced on Thursday. This keeps the award with the Philadelphia Sixers, since Joel Embiid won the previous three awards
Dario played 12 games last month with an average 17 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1 steal per game. In February his shot improved over the rest of the season (44.3 percent from an average 40 in the season), free throws are at 78 percent, but his three pointers are at a poor 25 percent, weaker than his season average of 31.5 percent, Jutarnji List reported on March 3, 2017.
Out of the 12 games, Šarić made double digit points in 11 of them, went over 20 points five times and made four double-doubles in a row. It should be noted the Sixers won 4 of those 12 games. The previous Croatian representative to win this award before Šarić was Bojan Bogdanović in 2015.
Considering Joel Embiid will miss the rest of the season, Dario Šarić and Malcolm Brogdon have become candidates for Rookie of the Year (if he continues his February level performances). Embiid may have shown the most of all rookies this season, but has played only 31 games, which seems too little for the media to give him the vote for Rookie of the Year. But, not impossible.
