The Stauskas We Know and Love
I know I posted about Stauskas just yesterday, but this article posted on Liberty Ballers today is too good not to post.
With Stauskas finding his 3-point stroke, he's starting to get the drive opportunities he feasted on as B1G POTY in college. The article doesn't add too much to what I posted yesterday, but the GIFs make me super happy.
November 18th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 12:37 PM ^
Yeah, its really hard to watch all of these impressive athletes and incredible shooters play a very entertaining game of basketball.
Which back in your day NBA do you prefer? The mid 90's to mid 00's version with bad iso offense that led to teams averaging 95 points per game, or the 70's-80's version where they scored more points per game than the current league and really didnt play much defense.
November 18th, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 1:27 PM ^
I'm trying to decide whether to watch NBA games this season or not. What's your take?
November 18th, 2016 at 2:20 PM ^
You've already missed over 3 weeks of action.
Set an Outlook reminder for next October if you're serious about giving the NBA a try.
November 18th, 2016 at 2:31 PM ^
Its actually not, ESPN has like two games a week, TNT shows games, you can watch like every Pistons game almost on FSD, and NBA League Pass is a decent deal. Pretty easy actually.
November 18th, 2016 at 1:21 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^
what is inside cares for you.
November 18th, 2016 at 3:38 PM ^
The 80's was the perfect mesh of athletisism and fundamentals. Plus, all the iconic players. Magic, Bird, Kareem, Thomas, Barkley, Ewing, Drexler to just name a few off the top of my head. Plus, it's when Jordan came in.
November 18th, 2016 at 4:41 PM ^
NBA is ok. I am not a huge fan but the last few years have been much better. More ball movement, better defense. The game has improved as I thought the early to mid 00's to 2012 the basketball was pretty abysmal to watch. Never hated the NBA but never loved it.
November 18th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 11:31 AM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^
But on the negative side...Canadian...
November 18th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
Thought this was the year your Sixers were suppose to turn the corner and deliver on the multiple years of tanking - AKA "The Process" Not looking too good so far.
Sad thing for Nik is that if Phlly keeps shitting the bed (2-10 and last place AGAIN in the east) he'll get moved again IMO.
November 18th, 2016 at 11:49 AM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 1:10 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^
We would be in much better shape if Ben Simmons hadn't gotten injured.
He would have solved the biggest issue we have, which is the lack of a guy who can't facilitate the offense. His play in pre-season was Magic Johnson-esque at times.
Once he comes back, we will have a facilitator, a low-post presence (Joel Embiid), and -- thanks to the emergence of Stauskas -- some shooters. THAT's a team that can win games.
It's hard to turn a corner when one of your cornerstones is out.
On a side note, the Timberwolves are what "The Process" was SUPPOSED to look like. We were set to get Wiggins in 2014 (Cavs were ready to draft Embiid), but Embiid injured his foot in pre-draft workouts. And then in 2014, we had the third worst record, but the Timberwolves had the worst record and the lottery went their way, which resulted in them getting Towns.
If we had had the Wolves luck in those two drafts, we could have had a core of Noel, Towns, Wiggins, and Saric.
The Process always depended on lucky bounces in the draft, and unfortunately we did not get those.
November 18th, 2016 at 12:12 PM ^
My Cavs went from dogshit to the NBA finals in one year thanks to Lebron feeling guilty about fucking over Cleveland and comging back home coupled with getting lucky in the lottery and being able to parlay those assets (plus Kyrie) into Kevin Love, JR Smith & Iman Shumpert.
It can happen fast in the NBA so maybe when Simmons comes back the Sixers can make a similar move. Lord knows Philly fans deserve better than they've gotten over the past several years.
And I'm a Browns fan too so I know just how much fun it is to follow a god awful team for multiple years.
November 18th, 2016 at 3:47 PM ^
Cleveland's path to the title is not repeatable. Not many teams luck into the most talented player of all time being born in their city. And I think we all know the draft lotttery in the NBA is rigged.
November 18th, 2016 at 1:04 PM ^
But why do you have to kick us while we're down? Is it not enough that your beloved Cavs finally ended Cleveland's 52-year title drought. Goodwill for everyone, right? Sure, the Indians did their best Warriors impersonation earlier this month, but does it really make you feel better to lift your leg on us Sixer fans? A Cavs fan mocking a Sixers fan is like me blocking my 8-year-old's jump shot and then trash talking.
On a serious note, I would agree that most Sixers fans expected better than 2-10 at this point, especially before Simmons went down. That said, 2-10 is an improvement over the two previous years. Embiid is showing increbile promise for someone who could still be a college senior. Hakeem Olajuwon was still at Houston at this point. We all know Embiid's injury history, but you have to admit, there is hope and intrigue.
Simmons should be a college sophomore right now. If you saw him play this summer, you know he's an exciting prospect. Heck, arguably his biggest supporter in the NBA is your hero, Lebron. That has to mean something.
Noel has yet to play. He's a potential All-NBA defense guy. Either Noel or Okafor will be traded at some point. Either could return decent value (read -- legitimate point guard). Saric is 22, and is showing signs of becoming a legit 6th man.
We will know whether or not the Sixers "turned the corner" based on their 2nd half record. I am hoping to see a final win total near 30. #delusionsofgrandeur
November 18th, 2016 at 1:09 PM ^
And I can tell you definitely trust the process, so I already like you. But no way they win 30 games. I think 20 is reasonably optimistic. They havent won 30 games over the last 2 years combined
November 18th, 2016 at 1:47 PM ^
When looking at a pretty dismal W-L record for the Sixers right now, I think it's also important to keep in mind that they're basically running their offense through a 22-year-old guy who's in his first month of real professional basketball, has a severe minutes restriction, and is currently turning the ball over about a billion times per 36 minutes. If he stays healthy, I really think Embiid becomes the best true center in the game (or at least 1b to KAT's 1a). But gameplay so far has been about his development, not about maximizing wins.
Look a relatively short distance down the road, it's easy to see the Sixers with the best roster in the East. Far too early to say The Process has failed.
November 18th, 2016 at 1:59 PM ^
And don't forget that this potentially good roster will get even better.
In 2017, we have the Lakers pick (Top 3 protected) and the right to swap picks with the Kings.
In 2019, we have the Kings 1st round pick.
There's a lot of potential for talent infusion.
November 18th, 2016 at 2:12 PM ^
Indeed. Turn those picks, this year's lottery pick, and one of Okafor/Noel into a floor spacer, a solid point guard, and some veteran help, and deep playoff runs might not be so far away.
November 18th, 2016 at 11:34 AM ^
His handles are looking really good. Glad he's finally showing what we all knew he's capable of.
November 18th, 2016 at 12:32 PM ^
Maybe he should!
November 18th, 2016 at 1:31 PM ^
Read this really interesting article about what Steph's doing there: not just goggles, but they are strobe light glasses. Kawhi Leonard started doing it as well and its paying off big time.
The history is super interesting, MJ was the first to try it and they kept it mostly a secret. The goggles were originally part of the Nike SPARQ program (R&D basically), which was shut down when the director was arrested for attempting to murder his family. Crazy shit.
LINK
November 18th, 2016 at 11:35 AM ^
Stauskas has admittedly struggled with his confidence over the past three years, even employing a sports psychologist to help him keep his mind “sharp”. So far, he’s playing with a certain self-assuredness previously unknown to Sixers fans. Provided that Stauskas continues to knock down threes at a relatively high clip, he’ll continue to have more opportunities to drive the lane as the season goes on.
Wherever he managed to end up, I think the consensus was that Stauskas could easily be a huge contributor to whichever team would have him, and it's great to see him carving out a role like this in Philadelphia where they could definitely use what Stauskas brings to the table.
November 18th, 2016 at 11:50 AM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 11:41 AM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
if he ditched those black tights. Yeesh.
November 18th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
"EastCoast" keeps starting threads about a guy who is not starting for the worst team in the NBA. Okay.
November 18th, 2016 at 12:03 PM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 12:36 PM ^
So we need two updates a week about him? "EastCoast" started a thread about him having 14 points one game!
November 18th, 2016 at 12:49 PM ^
November 18th, 2016 at 12:09 PM ^
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November 18th, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^
So it seems like Stauskas has started figuring things out and gotten better. It amazes me that we see NBA players develop and reach their primes around age 27-28, and yet, I see comments that Walton, Irvin, and Donnal are what they are and no improvement is expected. I've been high on the hoops team for awhile because they have 7 solid players coming back. It wasn't hard to see all 7 making some improvement, with 1 or 2 making "the jump." If Moe and DJ "make the jump" this year, Whoooooah Nellie.
November 18th, 2016 at 12:45 PM ^
guys reach their prime much sooner than that; especially the one-and-doners.
November 18th, 2016 at 2:06 PM ^
Maybe a bit. But it's hard to argue that guys are peaking before age 25. See, e.g., the development curves here: http://harvardsportsanalysis.org/2015/05/player-progression-in-the-nba/
Anecdotally, take a guy like Kevin Durant. One-and-done palyer who started getting heavy minutes immediately, didn't reach his peak performance (looking at any of the total-value advanced metrics: win shares, win shares/48, boxscore plus/minus, value over replacement) until he was 25.
In any case, the point definitely holds that it's silly to look at any college basketball player as a finished product, even at age 21-22.
November 18th, 2016 at 2:08 PM ^
I'm glad to see Stauskas coming into his own. I even yelled at the TV a couple times for him to pass it to Embiid (I had Embiid as my C on FanDuel last night). Who knows how things will pan out, but the 76ers and Timberwolves look like they could be next in line as far as great teams go. Both are loaded with young talented players.