The Nik Stauskas Thread

[MasterIchiro]

Well that's what I figured.

[Liver_Pooty]

If Stauskas was African American he would be a top 5 pick. Skin color hurts players draft stock. Its a fact.

[JDR720]

Nik also has Lithuanian roots

[MasterIchiro]

If Stauskas was African American he would be a top 5 pick. Skin color hurts players draft stock. Its a fact.

On the flip side, what if Gary Coleman (Harris) were white?

That TV show never happens.

[Eoghan]

If Stauskas was African American he would be a top 5 pick. Skin color hurts players draft stock. Its a fact.

Nah. Black Stauskas isn't getting drafted over Embiid, Wiggins, Parker, Exum, or Vonleh. He wouldn't be a reach at our pick though.

No way a Kemba-Stauskas backcourt touches a Wall-Beal one. The Wiz kids have better size, overall better shooting and much better defense.

[TheKingofSting2]

I hear Clifford is big on defense...

Yes but he can also cover up flaws on defense. See Jefferson Al.

This is a flawed rebuttal. Big Als flaws can be covered up because he is the only one in the starting 5 with below average D for his position. You have two weak defenders in the starting line up and our team defense would be trash. Just look what happened when MKG went down and a weaker defender went in the starting line up. Went from top 10 to not mentioned at all.

MKG will help in that process.

[tmorgan]

Stauskas was Michigan's PG. Derrick Walton is trash. Caris Levert isn't no playmaker. Stauskas led the team in assist and he had the ball in his hands a ton. He might've been the SG on paper but he was the PG.

I'm just monitoring your thread because I'm interested in reading about teams'/fans' reaction to Stauskas.

You, sir, clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Stauskas did indeed handle the ball more than a typical 2, but he was not the PG. He almost never brought it up unless it was a chance at a transition bucket, and he certainly didn't run a majority of plays in the half court. Did you even watch a second of Michigan basketball to come up with this nonsense?

The one thing he was was the bailout option if the play broke down, so you'll see him trying to create on a lot of highlights at the end of the shot clock. Other than that, no -- Beilein runs a passing offense that gets almost all the perimeter players touches on every possession. Walton ran some point, Albrecht ran some point, and Stauskas ran mostly P&R's and spotted up a majority of the time. What made him special is that a Stauskas spot-up will lead to a drive if you close on him too aggressively.

[BeesWax]

If we pick Haris, Payton or Randle I may just get a teal Stauskas jersey for the heck of it. Might as well have a jersey of a quality player in this draft.

[catch20two]

Stauskas was Michigan's PG. Derrick Walton is trash. Caris Levert isn't no playmaker. Stauskas led the team in assist and he had the ball in his hands a ton. He might've been the SG on paper but he was the PG.

I'm just monitoring your thread because I'm interested in reading about teams'/fans' reaction to Stauskas.

You, sir, clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Stauskas did indeed handle the ball more than a typical 2, but he was not the PG. He almost never brought it up unless it was a chance at a transition bucket, and he certainly didn't run a majority of plays in the half court. Did you even watch a second of Michigan basketball to come up with this nonsense?

The one thing he was was the bailout option if the play broke down, so you'll see him trying to create on a lot of highlights at the end of the shot clock. Other than that, no -- Beilein runs a passing offense that gets almost all the perimeter players touches on every possession. Walton ran some point, Albrecht ran some point, and Stauskas ran mostly P&R's and spotted up a majority of the time. What made him special is that a Stauskas spot-up will lead to a drive if you close on him too aggressively.

Stauskas brought the ball up just as much as the paper listed PG. Anyway I consider the point guard to be the player that initiate the offense the majority of the time. Just like Lebron is the Heat PG even though Chalmers is listed as the PG and don't do much but spot up for 3s. I know that you're supposed to be a Michigan fan and you've seen more of them than me but I seen more than a few Michigan games this year and the ball always was in Stauskas hands to initiate the offense in a halfcourt set which made me think he was the PG.

[BeesWax]

Stauskas was Michigan's PG. Derrick Walton is trash. Caris Levert isn't no playmaker. Stauskas led the team in assist and he had the ball in his hands a ton. He might've been the SG on paper but he was the PG.

I'm just monitoring your thread because I'm interested in reading about teams'/fans' reaction to Stauskas.

You, sir, clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Stauskas did indeed handle the ball more than a typical 2, but he was not the PG. He almost never brought it up unless it was a chance at a transition bucket, and he certainly didn't run a majority of plays in the half court. Did you even watch a second of Michigan basketball to come up with this nonsense?

The one thing he was was the bailout option if the play broke down, so you'll see him trying to create on a lot of highlights at the end of the shot clock. Other than that, no -- Beilein runs a passing offense that gets almost all the perimeter players touches on every possession. Walton ran some point, Albrecht ran some point, and Stauskas ran mostly P&R's and spotted up a majority of the time. What made him special is that a Stauskas spot-up will lead to a drive if you close on him too aggressively.

Stauskas brought the ball up just as much as the paper listed PG. Anyway I consider the point guard to be the player that initiate the offense the majority of the time. Just like Lebron is the Heat PG even though Chalmers is listed as the PG and don't do much but spot up for 3s. I know that you're supposed to be a Michigan fan and you've seen more of them than me but I seen more than a few Michigan games this year and the ball always was in Stauskas hands to initiate the offense in a halfcourt set which made me think he was the PG.

The games I watched he was definitely off the ball most of the time. He made the offense when they got stale but they tried to let the other guys run it most of the time. He just ended up with it in crunch time and as time ran down because he was the best player by far. Also he put up tons of assists for a team that had no real post threat and ran 3 guards a SF and a weak post player. If he had McGary to help create for the numbers would have looked even better,

[mrknowitall215]

Stauskas was Michigan's PG. Derrick Walton is trash. Caris Levert isn't no playmaker. Stauskas led the team in assist and he had the ball in his hands a ton. He might've been the SG on paper but he was the PG.

I'm just monitoring your thread because I'm interested in reading about teams'/fans' reaction to Stauskas.

You, sir, clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Stauskas did indeed handle the ball more than a typical 2, but he was not the PG. He almost never brought it up unless it was a chance at a transition bucket, and he certainly didn't run a majority of plays in the half court. Did you even watch a second of Michigan basketball to come up with this nonsense?

The one thing he was was the bailout option if the play broke down, so you'll see him trying to create on a lot of highlights at the end of the shot clock. Other than that, no -- Beilein runs a passing offense that gets almost all the perimeter players touches on every possession. Walton ran some point, Albrecht ran some point, and Stauskas ran mostly P&R's and spotted up a majority of the time. What made him special is that a Stauskas spot-up will lead to a drive if you close on him too aggressively.

Stauskas brought the ball up just as much as the paper listed PG. Anyway I consider the point guard to be the player that initiate the offense the majority of the time. Just like Lebron is the Heat PG even though Chalmers is listed as the PG and don't do much but spot up for 3s. I know that you're supposed to be a Michigan fan and you've seen more of them than me but I seen more than a few Michigan games this year and the ball always was in Stauskas hands to initiate the offense in a halfcourt set which made me think he was the PG.

Both 'tmorgan' and 'catch20two' are correct. Belein's offensive system allowed all of the guards & wings to push the ball up the floor and set the offense. That's what made their team so dangerous in transition

[tmorgan]

McGary would have made Michigan a legit title threat -- I'm surprised "we" did as well as we did without him. There were two primary reasons:

1) Stauskas improved a ton (some was expected, but he improved a lot more than your typical Frosh to Soph)
2) Jordan Morgan was actually a good player (finally, as a senior)

Morgan had, prior to this season, been a solid post defender and really not much else. Stauskas got him some easy buckets and he was actually part of the offense last year. McGary would have been a big step up, of course, but just having a 2nd decent big would have helped a ton, because Jon Horford (since transferred) pretty much sucked.

I think a compromise is fair here -- Michigan's offense didn't really make a distinction between the 1 and 2 (and sometimes even 3), because Walton, Albrecht, Stauskas, and Levert all initiated offense. That's one of the reasons why I'm worried about Little Dog Robinson as a pro -- if he could have been part of that, he probably would have been, but he just didn't have the ball skills. Heckuva athlete, great finisher, good shooter, but he's basically a poor man's Wiggins, and I'm worried about him, too.

[yosemiteben]

Redick did not have the ball skills that Stauskas has. Coach K was a master at designing an offense that capitalized on JJ's ability to move without the ball and shoot off of off the ball screens. By his senior season JJ developed a bit of a floater, but he was not breaking guys down off the dribble regularly. Stauskas's ball handling skills out of college are far superior to Redick's at the same level.

[Eoghan]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

[mrknowitall215]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

That's what I said...how quickly people forget when it doesn't translate

[BeesWax]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

Redick had more turnovers than assists as a sophmore at Duke. The guy could barely dribble at that point. That was what pissed me off. He would celebrate every three point shot he made like a game winner and it was the only basketball skill he had at the time. The concern for him was defending the 2 but he was never going to handle the ball well enough to be PG.

[BeesWax]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

That's what I said...how quickly people forget when it doesn't translate

95 assist to 90 turnovers as a senior.

0 PG skills. Nik is so far ahead of him as a ball handler and passer it isn't funny. His freshman year Redick was +13 in assists and that was his best for his career at Duke. For his career 296 turnover for his 306 assists.

[mrknowitall215]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

That's what I said...how quickly people forget when it doesn't translate

95 assist to 90 turnovers as a senior.

0 PG skills. Nik is so far ahead of him as a ball handler and passer it isn't funny. His freshman year Redick was +13 in assists and that was his best for his career at Duke. For his career 296 turnover for his 306 assists.

I'm not saying the Redick's point guard skills are even keel or better than Stauskas', but I am saying that Stauskas' current point guard skills are overrated on this thread. It's not as if Stauskas averaged near 5 assist or anything. Kemba averaged 5 assist at UConn, and almost half of the board don't think he's a legitimate point guard, yet Stauskas average 3 assist in one season as the de-facto point guard and everybody acting like he is the second-coming of Stephen Curry

[yosemiteben]

I think Redick at Duke played as much point as Stauskas did at Michigan. The draft talk surrounding Redick was all about converting him to the point, much like we're doing with Stauskas.

Coming from a guy who watched literally every game Redick played at Duke, he was never the primary ballhandler in his four year career. I probably only watched 4 or 5 UM games last season (MSU 2x, Duke and a couple tourney games), but Stauskas regularly brought the ball up the floor and initiated the offense. Redick never demonstrated the ability to create for others that Stauskas did. I really don't think their games are that similar.

[MasterIchiro]

That's what I said...how quickly people forget when it doesn't translate

95 assist to 90 turnovers as a senior.

0 PG skills. Nik is so far ahead of him as a ball handler and passer it isn't funny. His freshman year Redick was +13 in assists and that was his best for his career at Duke. For his career 296 turnover for his 306 assists.

I'm not saying the Redick's point guard skills are even keel or better than Stauskas', but I am saying that Stauskas' current point guard skills are overrated on this thread. It's not as if Stauskas averaged near 5 assist or anything. Kemba averaged 5 assist at UConn, and almost half of the board don't think he's a legitimate point guard, yet Stauskas average 3 assist in one season as the de-facto point guard and everybody acting like he is the second-coming of Stephen Curry

It's because Stauskas has elite court vision and that doesn't always translate in assists alone. However, it may show up in assist/turnover ratio. Stauskas (a non-PG) had the same assist/turnover ratio as Kemba Walker in 2014. Both had crappy teammates.