Nik Stauskas Praying Third Time Is The Charm

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.

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.

Playing Through

Slumps are nothing new to head coach Brett Brown. His approach to a slumping player is simple: focus on what you can control. Defense is far more manageable than how a shot drops, and so he began to work with Stauskas to commit to playing solid defense.

While he answered the bell in his first five games, where he averaged 14.5 points per game, 4.0 rebounds per game, and 2.8 assists per game, it would not last.  By November, he was averaging 25.4 minutes, but his production has dropped to 8.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 2.1 APG.

And then the slump really kicked in.

Likely his most forgettable game was against the Utah Jazz on December 28. On that evening, he played 25 minutes, scored no points, and the team lost 91-95.   Had he scored even six points for the evening, that would have been a badly needed victory.

Now that isn’t to say any loss is due to one player. But the struggles of a player become the struggles of the team.

Eventually, Stauskas would get his timing and bearings.  In the month of April 2016, he had improved to average 12.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.2 APG, but his shooting accuracy dropped to 33.8 percent from the floor and just 25 percent from three-point range.

Blue Collar Solution Is Focus

In a blue-collar town like Philadelphia, there is a simply mantra: “Lead, or get out of the way”.  In the case of a struggling professional athlete, that carries an entirely new meaning.

Philadelphia does not boo a player who is working hard and trying.  But let that player have any appearance of distraction, and the ire of the entire city immediately falls upon him.  And so, when Nik Stauskas was armed with a microphone during the All Star break

While the nation was entertained by the efforts of the 76ers’ shooting guard to conduct interviews, the fans of the Philadelphia 76ers were not entertained at all. Here was a slumping and struggling player in a tuxedo rubbing elbows with celebrities on a red carpet, while a gymnasium lay empty.

Third Time Is The Charm

And so, here we are. Year three of his career, and for all intents and purposes, we are still waiting for experience to “kick in”.  His reputation was not in passing, rebounding, or even driving to the basket.

It was shooting the three point shot.

So far, that three point accuracy is still in shipment.  As a team, shooting from the three point line averaged 33.9 percent.  Last year, Stauskas fell below that average at 32.6 percent.

But this off-season, he did play with Team Canada this year, and focused on training.  He knows he needs a good training camp.  How good?  It’s put up or shut up time.

Hopefully, the game slows down for the Canadian shooting guard this year. Hopefully, weeks of training at shooting make it automatic in the heat of game play. Nobody wants Nik Stauskas to succeed. Fans merely want the best players on the team.

Next: Philadelphia 76ers: Analyzing Who Should Make the 15-Man Roster

There are no quick fixes to turn a career around in the NBA. It takes training, dedication, attitude, and opportunity.  Hopefully, these factors will align in time for Nik Stauskas to impress the team’s front office in time.  If they do, this could be a year worth watching. If not, the team has enough talent to part ways and never look back.  That’s the price of competition.  And that’s why the team needs to embrace competition this year.