Please Hold The Sauce
In our October Recap, we were prophetic in the singling out of Nik Stauskas:
"Perhaps Nik Stauskas will emerge as that “sharpshooter” Sam Hinkie envisioned when he traded for him in 2015. Perhaps the team will improve upon the 28.6 percent accuracy from three-point range?"
Perhaps indeed.
Busting Brackets
The Philadelphia 76ers are currently at 36.0 percent accuracy from the three, and Nik Stauskas has certainly been a player in that resurgence as he has been hitting 44.8 percent of his shots from the perimeter in November 2016. But he was not the only one.
Dario Saric has been shooting for 41.6 percent accuracy from downtown, while averaging 6.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. That’s from the power forward role.
Alongside the “Croatian Sensation” is new acquisition Ersan Ilyasova. Ilyasova was acquired in the trade which sent Jerami Grant to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Grant also brought a protected 2020 first round pick from the Thunder to the 76ers. Was it a salary dump? If it was, then the laugh is on the Thunder.
Ilyasova delivered incredible reinforcement to Saric at the four, where he gets starts and allows Saric to excel off the bench. Since arriving, Ilyasova is shooting 47 percent from the floor, and 40.3 percent from three-point range.
Finally, the team’s offense fell to the capable hands of Sergio Rodriguez. While “El Chacho” was not at his best shooting, his 6.8 assists per game kept the hot shooters on the team well supplied with the ball