In his third NBA season, but returning to the same NBA team for only the first time in his career, Nik Stauskas is praying that third time is the charm.
He is Canadian, and he was almost an afterthought addition to the trade between the Sacramento Kings and the Philadelphia 76ers, a trade which found the 76ers adding Carl Landry and Jason Thompson to the team as salary dumps. While the key to the trade was draft swaps in both 2016 and 2017 drafts, and a first round protected pick which will become unprotected in 2020, there has been a great deal of excitement over the addition of Nik Stauskas to this roster.
But the team he arrived to was not exactly in an ideal situation.
In fact, it was anything but ideal. The team struggled early in the season with a myriad of injuries, lack of veteran point guard leadership, and a roster depleted by Joel Embiid’s second year of rehabbing.
It was a situation that was so unforgiving, that despite an injury which forced him to miss the season opener, he was rushed back to the lineup to give the team enough players in jersey’s to meet the season’s schedule.
#Sixers Stauskas: 'It's a big year for me. I feel like I let my confidence waver a lot (last season).'
— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) September 29, 2016
A player whose confidence was shaken in his first NBA season in Sacramento did not need to feel pressure immediately upon starting his season in Philadelphia. But he did, and he slumped as a result.