Nik Stauskas Makes 76ers 15-Man Roster

Submitted by EastCoast Esq. on

In a move that will upset some of my fellow 76ers' fans, Nik Stauskas made the 15-man roster. The Philadelphia fanbase thinks he is trash at this point, but the team obviously wants a 3-point shooter to help our big men.

As a Wolverines fan, I REALLY hope Stauskas regains his stroke. It would make me so happy on so many levels. He is running out of time, though.

 

Nik Stauskas has made the Philadelphia 76ers' 15-man roster, according to a league source. They will release Brandon Paul.

— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) October 24, 2016

 

Here is Liberty Ballers' (76ers SBNation fan site) take on the situation:

The Sixers holding onto Nik Stauskas, who made exactly three field goals in 81 minutes of preseason action and shot 15.8% from the floor in four games, was probably the biggest surprise of the day. However, it should be noted that the former lottery pick’s contract was already fully guaranteed for this coming season. Additionally, the team may still decide to waive him should they need to create a roster spot to facilitate a trade or a waiver signing. With recent first-round picks Tyler Ennis, RJ Hunter, and Archie Goodwin among the players cut today, and with the Sixers holding dibs to the first waiver claim, this could happen sooner rather than later.

UM Fan from Sydney

October 24th, 2016 at 2:37 PM ^

I really wish all of our NBA players on those teams stayed all four years. We would have won a national title. Got so close...

Lampuki22

October 24th, 2016 at 2:43 PM ^

Similar situation for Denard in Jacksonville.  Bad situation for a good guy.  Fit is key in any job, but probably not much more than professional sports. 

EastCoast Esq.

October 24th, 2016 at 2:49 PM ^

This is a major misconception about the 76ers. They are not a bad situation. We have had a poor record in the past few years, but that was on purpose in order to acquire good players. A bad situation would be overpaying one star who doesn't play well with others and surrounding him with trash (like the Knicks with Carmelo).

Once Ben Simmons (our 6'10" point forward) is back, we will have 2 or 3 guys who will be drawing a lot of attention from defenders, which will then allow Stauskas opportunities at open threes.

It could actually be the best situation for him because the 76ers don't care about winning this season (they may care next season), so he'll get plenty of opportunities to figure out his stroke. He wouldn't see the floor on most other teams.

Cali's Goin' Blue

October 24th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^

Probably one of the best sports podcasts I've ever listened to. Their most recent podcast even spent over 5 minutes talking about the NCAA and both sides of the "Players should be paid" argument. Glad to see other intelligent 76ers fans on this blog!

Here is a link for any 76ers fans who may be interested: http://www.rightstorickysanchez.com/podcast/2016/10/22/102216-sixers-season-preview

They talk about the NCAA starting around the 10 minute mark

EastCoast Esq.

October 24th, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^

Absolutely regarding the "on purpose" part.

The NBA is a star-dominated league and those stars are often identifiable out of college / high school (James, Jordan, O'Neal, etc.) and are almost always high draft picks.

If you are a borderline playoff team, you are highly unlikely to draft high enough to get a star. That means you are going to stagnate as a team unless you can sign one out of free agency (which is hard to do with the Larry Bird Rule, and even harder if you aren't a huge market).

For that reason, the 76ers tore down their stagnated team that had enough talent to make the playoffs (with Holiday and Iguodala), but not enough to have a shot at a championship. With all of the high paid good players gone, we lost a bunch of games, which in turn gave us a chance at a star at the top of the draft. 

We now have a potential star at center with Joel Embiid, a potential star at point forward with Ben Simmons, a high upside SF/PF with Dario Saric, a defensive wizard in Nerlens Noel, and an offensive wizard in Jahlil Okafor.

I'll GLADLY take that lineup over what most teams have.

ijohnb

October 24th, 2016 at 3:33 PM ^

was a bad situation for Stauskus because he was expected to have an impact, individually, as opposed to being another threat with an established product.  It was clear that Stauskus was going to have some growing pains when was with the Kings, a "good situation" would have been ending up as a sniper with the Spurs, the Clippers, the Thunder, anybody remotely competitive with other dudes to carry the bulk of the burden.  I don't think Phili is a "really bad situation" in general right now, but it was for Stauskus when he ended up there.

Cali's Goin' Blue

October 24th, 2016 at 3:18 PM ^

They did lose a lot of games the last three years "on purpose". The players and coaches wanted to win every game, which is very obvious if you ever watched one of their games. They lost to Golden State on a buzzer beating 3 by Harrison Barnes this last year for example. However, the NBA is a superstar league. You only win series in the playoffs if you have a player like Lebron, Steph, Durant, Westbrook, etc. And many times you need at least 2 to win a championship. The easiest way to get superstar talent is to have lots of high picks in the draft, and unless you can swindle the Nets into giving you their first round picks for five years(Boston Celtics), you have to lose a lot of games to have a high pick each year. Now you look at the 76ers roster, and it has a #1 overall pick, 2 #3 overall picks, a #6 overall pick, and a #12 overall pick all drafted in the last 3 years, not including the rights to swap picks with Sacramento next year, Sac's 1st rounder the year after, and the Lakers pick next year. Throw in the fact that they have the most financial flexibility to pull of trades, sign superstars in free agency, and keep the team financial in the green, and any reasonable basketball fan would much rather be a 76ers fan than a Pistons fan right now. The Pistons have an almost 0% chance to get another superstar to team with Andre Drummond over the next few years and thus an almost 0% chance of ever winning a title. The 76ers have as good of a chance as anyone outside of Cleveland, Golden State, and Minnesota to win multiple champoinships in the next 7-8 years. 

The main point is that being a 76ers fan the last 3 years has been extremely rewarding for the serious fans of the team. For the first time in my lifetime, they have a well thought out plan to bring a championship caliber team to Philly. You don't have to watch the games if you don't want to, but it's been fun for me to see the progress of the young players each year and to imagine what the team could look like in 3-4 years if they stick to their plan. Please someone, who's not a 76ers fan tell me I just made a reasonable argument for continuing to be a 76ers fan. I've struggled with this for the last few years, but I am going to die on this island if I have to. 

Cali's Goin' Blue

October 24th, 2016 at 4:25 PM ^

The unreasonable argument that many people make is that "The Process" that the 76ers were following in terms of building a championship caliber team, did not and will not work. If you stop to think about it, it actually is a really simple and brilliant idea. You need a superstar to win in the NBA and they followed the easiest path to getting one, while somehow also still managing to make a profit every year. Ya it sucks watching your team only win 47 games in 3 years but with the core and assets they have right now, they will be a playoff team at the very least for the next 10 years(Excluding the next two). These last 3 years will just be a faint memory by then and all fans, supporters of the process and detractors both will think that it was worth it. 

Sam Hinkie, who was the previous GM, took a radical approach that he knew was going to meet a lot of skepticism. He had to hit on most of his picks in order to keep his job and get the recognition he arguably deserved. You can only improve your chances of wiinnning a championship so much in a super-competetive league like the NBA. And that's what Sam was doing, whatever he could to increase the chance that the 76ers became a dynasty, he did.

Cali's Goin' Blue

October 24th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^

but my definition of a visionary is someone with a vision contrary to common belief or practice that improves the situation. They also have to stand by that vision in the face of scrutiny and criticism. Sam Hinkie definitely checks all those boxes except, depending on whether you think he left the sixers better off, improving the sixers' situation. And if you look at the players and assets the sixers had when he got here(Jrue Holiday, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner, no 2018 1st rd pick, which Hinkie got back for them) and compare that to what they have now, it is night and day

ChiCityWolverine

October 24th, 2016 at 3:37 PM ^

The roster is undeniably in better shape than it was a year or two ago, but to call Philly a "good situation" is ludicrous. Embiid, Noel, and Okafor together make no sense. No combination of those three can play at the same time. While Embiid could end up a franchise center, Noel and Okafor are both one way players with limited upside or trade value anyway. 

Likewise, Saric and Simmons' abilities both project to be most useful at the 4 long term. The Sixers will have the worst guards in the NBA for another season (by a wide margin). Looking through the NBA teams building for the future, which team's young core would you prefer Philly's over? I'd take Minnesota, Utah, Miami, Detroit, Denver, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and probably even the Lakers situations over Philly for the next five seasons. 

Real Tackles Wear 77

October 24th, 2016 at 2:44 PM ^

In less positive news, Mitch did not make the OKC final roster. His 15 game suspension will still stand if he gets signed by another NBA team. Probably Europe-bound unless he can get it all figured out pretty quickly.

Stay.Classy.An…

October 24th, 2016 at 2:46 PM ^

Have made more money than most of us will in our lifetime. Both terrific character guys and have represented the University well. That being said, healthy and rich is a great way to go through life. I know their dreams are to continue playing the sports they love, but man, they are both set for life if it doesn't work out at some point. 

Stay.Classy.An…

October 25th, 2016 at 8:19 AM ^

while I'm not a CPA or Financial Advisor, my hope and assumption would be that both of these young men have taken note of their current situations and put some money aside for their future. I would imagine that if the hour glass runs out, Nik and Denard could spend the rest of their lives coaching and make a ton money on top of what they already have. They could even both play overseas and continue to bring in money doing the thing they love. I don't know their individual stories, but I think it's stereotypical to assume that they have 50 people to support on their professional salaries.

But just because your post was so annoying, here is the following information, which wasn't even my point to begin with:

Nik Stauskas - 3yr, 8.6 million dollar contract (all guaranteed) roughly 2.8 million a year.

Denard Robinson - 4yr, 2.4 million dollar contract (guaranteed his $216,000 signing bonus) or roughly $500,000 a year. 

So, let's say for the sake of argument that they each spend 80% of what they make and save 20%. 

Nik would spend ~ 2.24 million on expenses and saves about $600,000 per year. So, not counting endorsements, investments, ect. he saves $1.8 million over the course of his first contract.

Denard would spend ~ 400,000 on expenses and save 100,000 per year. Which equals out to $400,000 saved over the course of his first contract.

They probably each have at least one more contract left in them, which I imagine would at least pay them the same, if not a little more. 

ijohnb

October 24th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^

really hope Stauskus regains his stroke."

The only question I have is, how on earth did he lose it in the first place?  Kid was about as natural of a shooter as I have ever seen in my life.

In reply to by ijohnb

EastCoast Esq.

October 24th, 2016 at 3:00 PM ^

Zero clue. Could be the difference between the NBA 3-point line and NCAA 3-point line was more significant than we thought. Could be that the Sacramento Kings screwed him up.

I personally think the Kings screwed him up with their complete incompetence.

Wolverine In Exile

October 24th, 2016 at 3:38 PM ^

was that the defenders in the NBA are generally faster at closing out on perimeter shooters than in college, so that ended up altering Stauskas's stroke because he was trying to compensate for the slightly increased speed of the defenders. I'll try and find the link to the article because they had a video clip in which they showed frame by frame that Nik's rhythm on shots was off between his college shooting and NBA shooting.

Richard75

October 24th, 2016 at 3:52 PM ^

This too. To put it in college basketball terms, it's like facing OSU every night (back when OSU was good). All of the closeouts are coming from quick, lanky dudes who can soar. When you're worried that the defender might get a piece of your shot, it does something to you.




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