Philadelphia 76ers: Nik Stauskas is growing into an NBA body

Nik Stauskas has gotten stronger, and that should excite Philadelphia 76ers fans.

I’m staying on record, I wanted the Philadelphia 76ers to grab Nik Stauskas at ten in the 2014 NBA Draft. The Sacramento Kings’ Vivek Ranadive and I both shared a love of Stauskas’ potential as a knock down shooter with athleticism and great size for an NBA shooting guard.

Philadelphia 76ers /

Philadelphia 76ers

Good thing I don’t own an NBA team, I suppose….

The Stauskas Trade

Vivek soured on Nik before I did however. On July 9, 2015, the Sacramento Kings traded Stauskas to the Philadelphia 76ers in what has been hailed as the most Hinkie of all Sam Hinkie trades. I remember vividly the tweet storm that night as the trade was reported. Initially it was thought that the Sixers had traded a first to Sacramento for Stauskas, which I was fine with.

Within a couple of hours it turned out that, no, in fact Sacramento had paid the Philadelphia 76ers an unprotected 2019 first round pick plus pick swap rights in 2016 and 2017 in order to shed salary. Their big move was to make room for Marco Bellinelli and Rajon Rondo. (neither of which remain with the Kings)

But this is not a story about Sam Hinkie, or Vivek or how I felt about things. This is about Nik Stauskas. He was initially a fan favorite by virtue of having a funny knickname “Sauce Castillo” It was thought that Sacramento was a bad situation and Stauskas would be our starting Shooting Guard and all would be right in the world.

Then reality struck…

It became immediately clear early in his first season with Philadelphia that Stauskas was physically too weak to play significant minutes on a quality NBA team. He simply did not have an NBA body and lacked muscle and strength to consistently defend or shoot. His shooting form is perfect but breaks down under pressure.

Additionally the NBA game seemed to move too fast for the young man. He was frequently caught ball watching on defense, and didn’t see plays developing the way a veteran player would.

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In his first season in Philadelphia, he shot very poorly to start the year due to a stress reaction in his shin. In January and February however he shot very well and showed signs of becoming the kind of perimeter threat that he looked like in Michigan.

Stauskas 2015 shooting by month – via Basketball Reference

Split	Value	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	eFG%	Ast’d	%Ast’d
Month	October	3	6	.500	2	3	.667	.667	3	1.000
	November	44	137	.321	24	89	.270	.409	29	.659
	December	29	77	.377	14	48	.292	.468	17	.586
	January	30	74	.405	18	44	.409	.527	26	.867
	February	35	76	.461	20	45	.444	.592	29	.829
	March	46	107	.430	18	56	.321	.514	32	.696
	April	23	68	.338	10	40	.250	.412	19	.826

But alas, it was not to be, Stauskas faded in the last 6 weeks of the season regressing to his early season struggles. This mirrored his rookie season somewhat where he started miserably and shot well after the all star break.

Holding out Hope

But watching him play, one thing continued to jump out. He is a talented basketball player who hasn’t grown into an NBA body. Some slim players simply never put on weight or strength and cannot compete. Stauskas added about 10-15lbs of muscle in summer of 2016. That, along with Canada not making the Olympics lead me to hope for some progress in him as a player.

And quite frankly, he did progress. Stauskas finished 2016-2017 as the best three point shooter on the Philadelphia 76ers shooting just under 37 percent. Not enough to say he turned into a starting caliber player, but enough to think he was good enough to earn minutes in the back court rotation for 2017.

And then this picture sufaced…..

Now I’m not saying Nik is jacked by any stretch. This is the most adult he has looked, however. He has clearly undergone a significant change in body mass just since April. I am hoping that Nik looks at the career that Gordon Hayward has had and sees a similar path for himself. Hayward has transformed his body as an NBA player and has seen a steady rise as a result.

It’s early in the summer and Nik has a lot of work to do in the gym to cut that bulk down to useable explosive muscle, but this added bulk should help him sustain his shooting form through contact, games and a long NBA Season.

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The trend lines are all positive for the Philadelphia 76ers and for Nik Stauskas. Vivek and I will continue to hold out hope that he lives up to expectations.

"“Shoots like Steph, tall like Klay” – Vivek Ranadive"

And if not, there is always the pick swap…