Dario Saric Says His New Minutes Guideline Is ‘hard to Accept'

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Dario Saric can relate to Joel Embiid.

Saric has been placed on a 24-minute guideline, designed to get him through the final five games of the season. He suffered left heel soreness and the Sixers capped his minutes, which had reached 31.7 per game during March.

Earlier this season, Embiid played under a minutes restriction that was incrementally increased to 28.

"It's hard to accept," Saric said after shootaround on Tuesday. "Now I feel how Joel [felt] the beginning of the season. Your mind, you want to play. You have opportunity to play one minute more or two minutes more, why not."

Saric has played one game under this guideline. He scored 16 points with three rebounds in 24 minutes on Sunday in the Sixers' loss to the Raptors. 

Saric would like to play all 82 games this season to "show I am tough," he explained.  He is following the direction of the Sixers' medical team to get to that mark, but he can't guarantee he won't plead his case to go beyond the guideline with the game on the line.

"(The) medical staff, I can say just positive things about them and that means they take good care of us," Saric said. "I want to play more minutes if it's chance to win the game. It would be hard, sometimes if you have minute restrictions and get the win, but it's OK. I'll try to push myself and I will try to explain to coaches if it's like last minute or something, to go over that 24."

Saric's playing time is scaled back as he wrapped up his second straight Rookie of the Month award. He averaged 18.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists last month.

"I am very proud of myself," Saric said. "I am very proud especially of the staff of coaches who worked this year with me, who worked on my game. I think I deserve that. I push myself every game. I try to play every game. I try to be competitive every game. I'm very happy because of that."

Saric reiterated his main objective this season is the success of the team, not individual accolades. He is eyeing 30 wins. The Sixers have 28 heading into Tuesday's game against the Nets. 

"I think it's more beautiful to see you have 30 wins than for example 29, 28. Sometimes for eyes, it's better," he said. "(It's) something special when team last year got 10 wins and make three times better … It means something for us and it means something for organization. We're moving forward. We're growing … To get 30 wins, I think we can be proud."