Sauce Castillo article

[andjel]

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/c...5/nik-stauskas-return-ann-arbor-nba/27943505/

Just in case if it was not posted anywhere.

Message is good, will see results in the summer.

 

[funkykingston]

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/c...5/nik-stauskas-return-ann-arbor-nba/27943505/

Just in case if it was not posted anywhere.

Message is good, will see results in the summer.

I don't know how good Nik or Ben can be but I feel confident that both will put in the work to reach whatever their ceiling will be.

If Ben can eventually be a Danny Green type player and Stauskas can be JJ Redick like then I'd be happy.

 

[KingsFanGER]

It's great that Nik is commited to working on his athleticism. But he has to keep in mind, that most likely he will never be an elite athlete. He needs to find ways to play around his weaknesses and play to his strengths. If Andre Miller can have a long NBA career without great quickness and without a jumpshot, I'm sure Nik can carve out a niche for himself.

 

[beb0p]

Speaking of Sauce, here is an article that compares his college shot chart to his NBA's and does a little bit of breakdown of the result. One obvious conclusion is that his corner threes from the left side of the floor curiously fell off a cliff and it dragged down his percentages (although shooting from other areas on the court didn't help either).

http://upsidemotor.com/2015/04/20/a...improve-potential-rookie-of-the-year-regress/

.

 

[The_Jamal]

Speaking of Sauce, here is an article that compares his college shot chart to his NBA's and does a little bit of breakdown of the result. One obvious conclusion is that his corner threes from the left side of the floor curiously fell off a cliff and it dragged down his percentages (although shooting from other areas on the court didn't help either).

http://upsidemotor.com/2015/04/20/a...improve-potential-rookie-of-the-year-regress/

.

Honestly, the fact is Nik didn't get a lot of minutes last season and didn't get a lot of opportunities that made him shine in college. He went from being a #1 option USG rate and total control of the ball to strictly an off-ball player. He didn't get the chance to showcase his playmaking ability, which was one of the most appealing options about him at the SG position.

Essentially, we asked him to be a different player last season, in far less minutes with far less shot attempts. That's going to hurt anyone's game. Next season, I'd like to see us essentially let Nik run the 2nd unit and be the primary playmaker. That's the next step in the development I think.

 

[Iced Espresso]

Nik is going to maximize what his body is capable of, guy puts the work in, loves the game. Whether it translates is another thing, but season two went much better for McLemore than his rookie year, hopefully it does for Nik too.

Funkykingston, we've had the luxury of drafting a SG project in McLemore with rather low expectations for our team, and he is still an athletic stud, and Nik has the ability to be elite in shooting and working from the pick and roll.

But we need them next season to take the next steps.

We could have some special guys here, we were going to be bad anyways, so maybe long term this works out much better than instincts probably tell us now.

Fingers crossed.

 

[lawlman91]

I'd like to see us essentially let Nik run the 2nd unit

^

 

[dude12]

He needs to hit the 3 point shot as his number 1 priority. Shooting at a high clip would be of tremendous help to the team.

 

[gunks]

Even though I was all in on Payton last draft, I still like Nik as a prospect.

His athleticism isn't horrible, he has good size for a 2, and his skill set is pretty rad.

He puts in the work, now we just have to see if it pays off. Having Karl as a coach should help him out.

 

[beb0p]

On Grantland, George Karl said this about today's NBA:

The shooters who have playmaking ability — those are the guys that are really kicking ass.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/w...he-nba-post-up-game-to-bring-you-its-rebirth/

The above pretty much describes Sauce.
.

 

[206Fan]

On Grantland, George Karl said this about today's NBA:



The above pretty much describes Sauce.
.

Yep the NBA is revolving and Vivek's entire nba 3.0 positionless basketball doesn't look soo funny anymore. Hopefully Nik is dedicating this offseason to the gym. Needs both upper and lower level strength.

 

[Gilles]

In April Ben averaged 17.5pts (.597TS%) + 3.8reb + 3.3ast (1.4 ast/TO ratio) + 1.9stl per 36 minutes

March was the only good month in Nik's rookie season: 13.5 pts (.600TS%) + 2.9reb + 2.1ast (1.45 ast/TO ratio) + 0.8stl per 36 minutes

Ben mostly played against starters, while Nik faced benchers.

 

[bajaden]

I admit to being a fan of Stauskas, which I have to admit, probably does influence me. But I'll say it once again, I liked Payton a lot too. Just thought Stauskas was a better fit at the time. Stauskas athleticism is brought up from time to time, and like most things, it's generalized to a large extent, and is governed by perception to some extent. Somewhere along the line, someone thought he was just another slow white guy that couldn't jump. Once introduced, it spreads and is expanded upon. Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Stauskas is a great athlete, but I will tell you that he's an above average athlete, for what that's worth. The bottom line is, does athleticism, or lack thereof, affect the players ability. Obviously it can, and the less athleticism a player has, the more skills he needs to overcome it. Thus you have players like Miller who is a very effective player.

But first lets do a comparison to see how Stauskas fares against some other players that are perceived to be above average athlete's. The measurement's I'm using are from the combine.

Nik Stauskas: 6'6.5", 207 lbs, max vertical 35.5", max reach 11'5.5", agility test 10.79, sprint 3.27
Dante Exum: 6'6", 196 lbs, max vertital 34.5", max reach 11'5.5", agility test 10.75, sprint 3.19
Zach Lavine: 6'5.75", 181 lbs, max vertical 41.5" max reach 11'9.5", agility test 10.42, sprint 3.19
Marcus Smart: 6'3.25", 227 lbs, max vertical 36", max reach 11'3", agility test 10.82, sprint 3.26

Of this group Lavine is considered an elite athlete, while Smart and Exum are considered good athletes. As you can see, Stauskas results hold up pretty well against this group. I'll be the first to admit that this isn't an exact science, and the combine results don't tell the whole story, but they're at least an indicator of what group a player falls into. How that shows up in results if yet to be determined. You can be extremely fast, have the ability to jump out of the building, and have poor lateral quicknes. You might not be fast, but quick, with a quick first step. My point is, athleticism doesn't come with a full bag. You can be the greatest athlete in the world and be stupid.

Anyway, in Stauskas case, I don't think athleticism is a problem. Lack of strength is, and hopefully he'll remedy that this offseason. Whatever the outcome, he's being paid less than half of what Landry is being paid. That's more upsetting to me. I can live with cheap mistakes, but the expensive one's are irritating.

 

[twslam07]

I admit to being a fan of Stauskas, which I have to admit, probably does influence me. But I'll say it once again, I liked Payton a lot too. Just thought Stauskas was a better fit at the time. Stauskas athleticism is brought up from time to time, and like most things, it's generalized to a large extent, and is governed by perception to some extent. Somewhere along the line, someone thought he was just another slow white guy that couldn't jump. Once introduced, it spreads and is expanded upon. Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Stauskas is a great athlete, but I will tell you that he's an above average athlete, for what that's worth. The bottom line is, does athleticism, or lack thereof, affect the players ability. Obviously it can, and the less athleticism a player has, the more skills he needs to overcome it. Thus you have players like Miller who is a very effective player.

But first lets do a comparison to see how Stauskas fares against some other players that are perceived to be above average athlete's. The measurement's I'm using are from the combine.

Nik Stauskas: 6'6.5", 207 lbs, max vertical 35.5", max reach 11'5.5", agility test 10.79, sprint 3.27
Dante Exum: 6'6", 196 lbs, max vertital 34.5", max reach 11'5.5", agility test 10.75, sprint 3.19
Zach Lavine: 6'5.75", 181 lbs, max vertical 41.5" max reach 11'9.5", agility test 10.42, sprint 3.19
Marcus Smart: 6'3.25", 227 lbs, max vertical 36", max reach 11'3", agility test 10.82, sprint 3.26

Of this group Lavine is considered an elite athlete, while Smart and Exum are considered good athletes. As you can see, Stauskas results hold up pretty well against this group. I'll be the first to admit that this isn't an exact science, and the combine results don't tell the whole story, but they're at least an indicator of what group a player falls into. How that shows up in results if yet to be determined. You can be extremely fast, have the ability to jump out of the building, and have poor lateral quicknes. You might not be fast, but quick, with a quick first step. My point is, athleticism doesn't come with a full bag. You can be the greatest athlete in the world and be stupid.

Anyway, in Stauskas case, I don't think athleticism is a problem. Lack of strength is, and hopefully he'll remedy that this offseason. Whatever the outcome, he's being paid less than half of what Landry is being paid. That's more upsetting to me. I can live with cheap mistakes, but the expensive one's are irritating.

I think you and me have been two of the biggest supporters through Stauskas' tenure with the Kings (and that's even with me throwing him in countless trade proposals).

I am really not worried about Stauskas too much. His skillset should translate very nicely to the NBA, and I will still stand here and say that even after a poor rookie season.

His athleticism is not bad at all, and I get frustrated when I see people on other forums that either label him as a poor athlete or Fredette 2.0. I think that people have preconceived notions about him because of his skin color. That might be obnoxious of me to say, but that's the feeling I get.

As Baja has already discussed, he can get up:

And I was pleasantly surprised by his quickness. Specifically, his lateral quickness on the defensive side. He did well keeping his man in front of him. He just needs to work on his strength because he can be bullied by stronger guards right now.

Again, I have a lot of confidence in his skillset and athleticism and have pegged his ceiling as Ginobli on multiple occasions. However, when I think about the team, ideally, we would have a more NBA ready player. If you see me include him in trades, it has nothing to do with the lack of respect for the player he is or the player I think he will be. It just comes down to the fact we need NBA ready players right now. In a perfect world, McLemore & Stauskas both take the next step and become productive SGs (giving us 6-7 years of good SG play with 2-3 of those years being on very, very cheap rookie deals).