Reading this article is kind of depressing as a Celtic fan:
http://www.csnphilly.com/basketball-philadelphia-76ers/jahlil-okafor-nik-stauskas-i-love-being-around-great-shooters
Stauskas will play. He fills a need for Philly (shooting). He shot 47%/42%/87% during the month of March. Kid showed improvement. The players are excited to have him there. Nice young player.
Nik Stauskus sucked last year. HE SUCKED. That is not an opinion. That is an objective fact. For you to write the negative things you have written about one Celtic player after another, then positively gush over a rookie failure like Stauskus is unbelievable. Compared to Stauskus, Smart and KO are all-stars and Bradley and Turner are hall of famers.
This is why people get irritated with you. It's not that you are wrong. Everybody is wrong from time to time. It's that you go off on these jags where you spout off absolute nonsensical garbage.
Mike
Eh...
First of all.... Sacramento Kings.
Second of all... Sacramento Kings
Third of all... They had three coaches last season
Forth, Ben McLemore was horrible as a rookie and made major progress in his second year.
Fifth, a year ago the majority of this board was telling me Stauskas was better than McLemore. I disagreed. Both were elite shooters in College
Sixth, when George Karl showed up, Stauskas made real progress. He shot lights-out in the month of March...
there is more evidence to suggest that Stauskas is an elite shooter than otherwise.Seventh, this has
NOTHING TO DO WITH PHILLY. Just feel compelled to reiterate that. I had a thread a week before the draft suggesting we trade #16 for Stauskas. So before anyone tries to pin this on my love-affair with Philly... you're wrong.
Eight, Stauskas was
thought to be a 3rd tier prospect last year with Gary Harris and Doug McDermott (ahead of Payton and Nurkic, apparently... proof that pre-draft tiers aren't perfect). I had him 10th on my board. This year, the "3rd tier" prospects included Winslow, WCS and Hezonja. Celtics apparently were considering Stauskas at #6
Lastly... Stauskas made real progress during the second half of the season. I'm in no way suggesting Stauskas is on the same level as Marcus Smart. Clearly not. Smart is unquestionably our best asset. Nik Stauskas was just given away for free. Nobody would suggest that Stauskas is a better asset than Smart. There's a reason why Smart was taken 2 picks ahead of Stauskas. That said, let's look at their production over the second half... inflated over 36 minutes:
Post all-star stats projected over 36 minutes:Nik Stauskas: 12.2 points, 2.4 assists, 3 rebounds, 0.5 steals 42%/42%/86%
Marcus Smart: 10.8 points, 3.1 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 steals, 36%/31%/62%
If you're curious about what they did in College here's their per-40 stats:Stauskas: 19.7 points, 3.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 0.6 steals, 47%/44%/82%
Smart: 22 points, 5.8 assists, 7.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals 42%/29%/73%
So yeah, Smart does more. Smart is a better defender. Stauskas might end up a better scorer. Fair to note that Stauskas was sharing touches with Cousins (24.1ppg), Gay (21.1ppg), Collison (16.1ppg) and McLemore (12.1ppg). Smart was more or less given the keys to a low-rent offense built around starters Avery Bradley (13.9ppg) and Brandon Bass (10.6ppg).
Also, Ben McLemore started all 82 games for the Kings this year. Stauskas had limited bench role from the beginning. He started exactly 1 game... where he put up 14 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals on 56% shooting and 3/4 from three. Stauskas was never given the same opportunity as Smart.
I, for one, will be very interested to see what Stauskas does with a sizable role in Philly. That's a team that has an intriguing interior presence, but will need an outside shooter for kick-outs. You're saying Stauskas sucks. Unless you believed he sucked heading into the draft, you might want to rethink your hot take.