Nik Stauskas Could Be On Philadelphia 76ers Roster Bubble

With the off-season acquisition of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Gerald Henderson, Nik Stauskas my have an uphill battle to earn a roster spot to remain with the Philadelphia 76ers

“Surround Ben Simmons with shooters.”

“Jahlil Okafor needs offensive help from some perimeter shooters”

“The Philadelphia 76ers need to fix their broken wings”

If you haven’t heard one or even all of these statements in the past year, you’ve been hidden away at a remote location. The 2015-2016 was disappointing on many fronts, but much of that can be attributed away to some level of extenuating circumstances:

They entered the season with barely enough healthy bodies to rotate everyone out. They never had a true starting point guard until Christmas 2015. Their top scorer and starting point guard player just 26 games together. The team lost their top scorer at the end of February.

More from Sixers News

But the shooting guard position was somewhat stable the entire season. Somewhat In that the team relied up the services of Hollis Thompson, Nik Stauskas, and after a failed experiment at point guard, Isaiah Canaan.

In the off-season, the team did not extend Isaiah Canaan a qualifying offer. To fill the void, the team selected Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Furkan Korkmaz in the 2016 NBA Draft. While Korkmaz will likely be stashed overseas for a year or two, Luwawu-Cabarrot is already playing for the Philadelphia 76ers in the summer league, and showing signs of true two-way potential.

The team also added shooting guard Gerald Henderson to the roster in the off-season on a two-year deal. Right now, the roster holds Henderson, Luwawu, Stauskas, and three-year veteran shooting guard Hollis Thompson. Of the group, Nik Stauskas is most likely to be on the roster bubble this off-season.

Thompson has been showing signs of steady improvement, ending the 2015-2016 season with 9.8 points per game on 28.0 minutes, and a 39.7 percent shooting accuracy from the floor, and a 38 percent shooting from long range. Compare that to Stauskas’ 8.5 points per game on 24.8 minutes, with 38.5 percent shooting on field goals and 32.6 percent shooting from three point range. Despite trying to work with him last season, Stauskas has not really turned the corner on defense. Meanwhile, Luwawu showed brilliant defensive potential in neutralizing Brandon Ingram in the summer league game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

There is no opening at other positions this year. Even in summer league so far, power forward Christian Wood‘s improvements will put pressure on the team to find a roster spot for the young man. If Nik Stauskas intends to play for the Philadelphia 76ers this year, he will need to be incredibly impressive in practice and preseason. In the off-season, both Christian Wood and Richaun Holmes stayed active with the team, and their summer league performances reflect the work ethic.

With the renewed effort to achieve a ball movement style roster, I am just not convinced that Nik Stauskas can fit. He likes to sit tight, catch and shoot. But the team is more aligned wtih Luwawu’s off-ball movement style.

After three years of abstinence from free agency, the Philadelphia 76ers had minimal pain when it came to paring down the roster to the final 15 for the season. This year, it will ouch a little. While I believe Nik Stauskas has potential, I am not certain he demonstrates enough “keep me” to remain. In any case, there is no mulligan’s this off-season. Whatever he has, this is showtime for the Michigan shooting guard from Canada. This is a matter of urgency.

Time is no longer on his side.