What Happens If Vasilije Micić Comes Over?

Another player who will never come over.

[photo: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images]

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He has been legally banned from covering the team in person, but that ban will be lifted in March of 2020. He is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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Vasilije Micić, drafted by the Sixers 52nd overall in the 2014 Draft, is reportedly giving strong consideration to leaving Anadolu Efes, where he stars as one of Europe’s best point guards. The Sixers still own… The Rights to Vasilije Micić (I had to say that)... and his possible arrival could make the Sixers’ offseason much more interesting.

While I won’t claim to be an expert on all things Micić (yet), I have tracked him for the last few years in case these rumors ever circulated. He’s a crafty point guard who in recent years has become a very good three-point shooter, including off the dribble. His general skill set -- creative passing, reliable shooting, ability to generate good shots and fouls -- sounds like exactly what the Sixers need at the backup point guard position. Without going overboard in my optimism, I think Micić could help this team in a meaningful way. That doesn’t necessarily mean as a star, or even as a starter, but a high-level backup point guard -- one who can run the show when Ben Simmons rests but also play alongside Ben and help tap into his potential as a more traditional forward -- could do wonders for this team. 

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as Micić deciding he wants to play in the NBA and the Sixers handing him a uniform. It’s complicated in a few ways: first of all, Micić is not subject to the NBA’s rookie scale as a second-round pick -- second-rounders do not have a set-in-place salary based on draft position the way first-rounders do. And because he has become a very valuable commodity who gets paid handsomely overseas, Micić would command a noteworthy salary in any scenario in which he comes over. Micić has full control over this situation, and that’s where things get a bit tricky.

For all we know, Micić could want to play for an NBA team other than the Sixers. And he wields the power to conceivably make that happen. If for any reason -- location, money (keep this one in mind for a bit later), role, connections, etc. -- he decides that another city / team suits him best, he will assuredly let the Sixers know in an attempt to force a trade to that team. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world -- the Sixers would get some sort of real asset for an international player drafted at the back-end of the second round almost six years ago -- but it would be disappointing.

Let’s say that Micić would be content coming to Philadelphia, though: there are some issues that very well may remain difficult to massage. As a team that is almost certainly going to pay the luxury tax this season, the Sixers will not have access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, rather the taxpayer mid-level exception, which has been projected to be worth just over $6 million. In my rough estimation, this seems like roughly the kind of number that would make sense for Micić. But, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this, but there is a global pandemic happening right now that has halted the entire sports world. The NBA is hemorrhaging money with no fans going to games, no games being broadcasted, less merchandise being sold, and all of the other damaging side effects of the coronavirus. 

All of that could actually impact the Micić situation: the NBA finalizes the salary cap number with a figure called Basketball Related Income (BRI). The BRI is determined by ticket sales, merchandise, television deals, and just about anything and everything else. And with those things not being nearly as profitable, the BRI is plummeting, which in turn will lead to a 2020-2021 salary cap that is smaller than previously expected.

When the salary cap goes down, so do all of the cap exceptions, including the aforementioned taxpayer mid-level exception. While it has yet to be decided exactly how much the cap will drop from this year to the next, there will definitely not be any sort of cap jump, which damages the value of a potential offer the Sixers make to Micić. This could result in a number of outcomes. To name a few: Micić’s NBA interest pertaining to teams who can offer him more than the Sixers can, Micić re-upping in Europe on a long-term deal that keeps him overseas for the remainder of his prime, or perhaps Micić being perfectly comfortable accepting a slightly reduced number and the last few hundred words I have written being entirely irrelevant. But Micić, 26, is not exactly a prospect, he is a player in his prime who one would imagine would like to come to some sort of clear decision soon. 

There’s a lot up in the air about Micić -- hell, only a small portion of us have seen him at all, and none have exactly done so religiously. But he seems like an NBA rotation player, and one who can help fill some holes in the Sixers’ roster as well. The biggest question is whether or not he wants to come over -- and the next is whether or not the Sixers can pull off the machinations necessary to make themselves the team that welcomes him to the States.