Brooklyn Nets: Uncertain future for Nik Stauskas

Brooklyn Nets shooting guard Nik Stauskas faces an uncertain future as he hits restricted free agency this summer.

Nik Stauskas looked like a steal when he made his debut for the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 15. The No. 8 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft had been acquired by the Nets in a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers along with Jahlil Okafor on Dec. 7 and made a big splash, literally.

Stauskas scored 22 points, hitting 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, in a blowout loss at Toronto that night and fans were excited by the possibilities of the knockdown shooter from Canada via the University of Michigan brought to the table.

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Unfortunately for Stauskas and the Nets, it never got any better than that.

His only other 20-point game have 12 days later, when he was 7-for-10 from deep en route to 21 points in a loss at New Orleans. Stauskas missed some time in January with a sprained ankle, but also fell out of coach Kenny Atkinson’s rotation for long stretches when healthy.

Stauskas logged eight consecutive DNP-Coach’s Decision lines between March 13-31 during a stretch in which he played just 8:55 in two games over a 14-game span.

He played the final six games of the year, including logging nearly 35 minutes in the season finale at Boston, scoring 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting and hitting just 2-of-7 from 3-point range.

Stauskas’ rookie deal expires July 1 and the 76ers opted not to offer him an extension before the deadline last fall.

Such has been the career for a player much more noted for having a closed-captioning glitch during a game late in his rookie season that led to the wonderful “Sauce Castillo” nickname he has carried since.

His play hasn’t inspired the same sort of viral sensation. Stauskas came out of Michigan after his sophomore year with the reputation of being a knockdown shooter, hitting 44.1 percent of his 3-point attempts in his two seasons with the Wolverines.

But in the NBA, Stauskas has been a shooter … just not so much with the “knockdown” part. In four seasons, he’s hit just 34.9 percent from deep, with last season’s 40 percent mark (40.4 percent after coming to Brooklyn) being the high-water mark.

Former college teammate Caris LeVert spoke highly of Stauskas when he came to Brooklyn, telling Newsday in December that it was a matter of confidence for the Saucey one.

"He’s a really talented player. It’s just keeping his confidence high, getting it back up to where I know it can be and where I’m used to seeing him at. … People forget he was the Big Ten Player of the Year as a sophomore and that’s a pretty good accomplishment. He had the ball in his hands most of the time. He was our go-to guy, our No. 1 scoring option, and I think people forget that."

The Sacramento Kings drafted Stauskas in 2014 and after he averaged 4.4 points in 15.4 minutes per game on a .365/.322/.859 slash line, he was given away to the 76ers along with Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and 2017 and 2019 first-round picks for the rights to a pair of late second-round selections in Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic (neither of whom has signed an NBA contract) and a 2017 first-rounder.

Stauskas got more playing time in Philadelphia, starting 62 games in his two full seasons with the team. But he still struggled to make shots at times, averaging 9.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 26.1 minutes a night and slashing just .391/.348/.795.

The arrival of J.J. Redick last summer knocked Sauce Castillo to the back of the fridge in the 76ers’ shooting guard pecking order as he logged just six appearances and 45 minutes in Philadelphia’s first 23 games before being traded to the Nets.

Stauskas didn’t meet the starter criteria, so he enters restricted free agency with a qualifying offer of $4.3 million and change, per Hoops Rumors, as a top-14 pick who failed to meet the criteria.

It’s not likely the Nets will extend the QO, which will make Stauskas an unrestricted free agent and the future is murky, at best, as far as his NBA future.

He had an opportunity to lock in a role with the 76ers, but didn’t, and got left behind when The Process moved to the “ready to contend for the playoffs” phase.

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At this point, about the best Stauskas can hope for is something small and non-guaranteed. Otherwise, he might discover that it’s time to export the Sauce to Europe.