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OKC Season Review: Nik Stauskas

Rolling Thunder: 3/08/2015

Name: Nik Stauskas
Age: 21
Height: 6’6
Weight: 205lbs
Position: SG

Acquired:

The Thunder acquired Stauskas via a draft day trade with the Los Angeles Lakers in which the Thunder drafted Noah Vonleh at Pick 7, then traded his rights to the Lakers in exchange for Stauskas’ rights from Pick 11, plus the Lakers lottery protected 2016 1^st round pick. Incidentally, the Lakers pick was later traded to receive Robert Covington.

Season notes:

Stauskas’ rookie year was a tumultuous one with the rookie hitting the rookie wall before the season even began, as opposed to in Week 5 as is customary. He was pencilled in as the starting shooting guard until this development, but instead found himself outside of the rotation all together on opening night and only made his debut in week 2 in 1 minute of junk time. Injury however soon thrust him into action as of week 4 and he never looked back logging double digit minutes from that time on, including 20 starts in 67 appearances with his best week coming in week 8 where he logged 33 minutes as a starter and put up 11 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.5 blocks, on 44% shooting, 50% from deep. He was also productive 2 weeks later in another starting role averaging 13 points and these performances highlighted his improvement from early in the year when he started in week 5 for averages of 2.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists on only 19% shooting and 10% from deep. He made some cameo performances off the bench in some games and his efficiency got better as the season progressed, but he never really got fully comfortable. His averages of 5.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists say it all really, but at least his 39% from deep highlighted that he at least has his elite skill to fall back on.

Nenjabin’s Notes:

Nik being one of the younger guys in the draft at only 19 on draft night, we knew the learning curve would be a fairly slow one. We were tentatively hoping he could fill an immediate shooting/floor spacing role for us right off the bat, but his lack of progress in training camp quickly saw us change our mind on that and probably put our team as a whole just a little behind the 8 ball to begin with, and we arguably didn’t really recover after injuries hit and we again went through a fair roster shake up in the name of the rebuild. Nik however ended up showing us some solid growth through the season and we were happy with the way he finished it off. He’s come into the gym early and is already working hard to improve to challenge for a rotational role again this year. He’s still only a 21 year old kid afterall.

“Nik personifies hard work, and let’s be honest, he needs to. His effort shone through over the year and he was a good locker room guy for us despite his rookie year struggles. His “Sauce Castillo” alias made for a light hearted way to get him further relaxed at the NLL level and he’s fully embraced the fans with this and has a cult status in our city.”

2015 Role:

Stauskas’ situation probably got a little murkier with the recent acquisition of more ready-made shooting guard, with a similar but different skillset in Evan Fournier. He was already behind Jimmy Butler as the starter, and likely competing with Robert Covington, Reggie Bullock and even Gerald Wallace for shooting guard minutes, but now he’s placed firmly at 3^rd on the depth chart at best. A strong training camp could push him upwards, and injury could see him forced into a bigger role, but minutes seem like they will be hard to come by for the 2^nd year sharp shooter.