The Philadelphia 76ers selected Filip Petrusev with the 50th pick of the 2021 NBA draft. After staying overseas for two more seasons, he joined the Sixers for the 2023-24 season hoping to make an impact on the organization.
Unfortunately for him, he only played one game for Philadelphia before being included in the big James Harden trade early in the 2023-24 season with the Los Angeles Clippers. Petrusev was then flipped to the Sacramento Kings and he played two games for them before he was waived.
Petrusev is now back in Serbia playing for Crvena Zvezda, but he wants to make a return to the NBA as he told Zurnal (translated by BasketNews):
“I would love to return to the NBA, and hopefully as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s always better to go there earlier rather than waiting until the later years of your career. I didn’t have much luck in Philadelphia… Just when I started getting some minutes, the trade happened and everything fell apart.”
Petrusev never had a real chance to show what he can do in the NBA so it will be interesting to see if he will get an opportunity going forward. He showed off some ability in the summer league with the Sixers to shoot the ball as well as protect the rim so one has to believe a team will take a flier on him.
