Nik Stauskas Has Struggled Through Two Years, is the 24th Worst NBA Player According to a Stat

I absolutely loved Nik Stauskas as an NBA prospect coming out of Michigan. As a freshman he was mostly just a 3-point shooter; as a sophomore he started to take people off the bounce, attack the rim, and he didn’t just do it against bad teams.

Who can forget his 24-point performance against Kentucky in the Elite 8 in 2014? Loaded Kentucky, which had two 1st round picks starting (Randle, Young), two 2nd round picks starting (Harrison, Johnson), and three other likely future pros (Harrison, Poythress, Lee) on the roster, could do nothing to stop Stauskas.

He scored 24 points, got to the rim whenever he wanted, and Michigan nearly pulled the upset, losing on an Aaron Harrison 3-pointer in the waning seconds. Stauskas was the Big 10 Player of the Year and made 44 percent of 3-pointers.

Stauskas went 8th in the draft to Sacramento – a basketball graveyard where all careers go to die – so he never had a chance in one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the NBA. But a year later, resurrection! The inept Kings traded him to the 76ers in what appeared to be a heist for Philly. A new city! A chance to play with Jahlil Okafor, a center who presumably would command double teams, meaning open shots for a tremendous shooter!

Year one, new city, new coach, new system, new teammates: It didn’t go well. Stauskas struggled defensively (again), and he still can’t find his shot (32 percent on 3-pointers). He averaged 8.5 ppg in 24 minutes a night, which are not bad numbers. But there was nothing promising about his season. (Unless you consider that would have been his senior year at Michigan).

He’s only 22!

Still, his 2nd year in the NBA was so bad, a new stat – “Player Value Index” – claims that Stauskas is the 24th “least valuable player in the NBA.”

I’m a glass half-full kinda guy, so it should be noted that former Top 10 pick Randy Foye is 23rd “least valuable,” OJ Mayo is 22nd, and there are plenty of other 1st round picks and players who make more money than Stauskas deemed “less valuable” than the former Michigan sharpshooter. (The “least valuable” player in the NBA according to this stat is former #1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani.)

Again – it’s only been two years. There’s no way I’m writing off a 22-year old after playing for two bad teams in two years.