In the 26th of June, 2014, with the 8th pick in the draft - the Sacramento Kings selected Nik Stauskas: an proven shooter in his days as a wolverine and a big 10 player of the year, lots of potential and lots of energy by the young Canadian.
So preseason, Nik was doing okay overall - nice shooting and nice understanding of the game. At times looked better than McLemore by a long shot, making us belive Ben is still the rookie.
Come the season, Nik ran into some trouble in his way: couldn't shoot the ball well and letting fans down on D. Well, he is a rookie after all... Not one rookie stood out from this year's class so far (maybe Parker, but for the time he's getting he's not living up to the cost yet) - and neither did Nik.
During that amazing 5 wins in a row for our beloved Kings, McLemore finally showed us what the hell Malone was trying to say the entire summer about BenMC and he really proved critics, such as moi, dead wrong: Got used to play D against good players, finally found his shot and started playing unselfish basketball.
So what does that do to Nik? well, not good at all:
No minutes for him to get used to the enviornment in the big leagues, no chance for him to show how much of a playmaker he could be, and really, no minutes for him to use to evolve in the league.
Question is, where do you think Nik is going? to remind you, McLemore got to start right from the begining of last season (scored 31 in one of his first 5 games I believe) - I'm not hating on Ben cause I love how good of a player he became and how important he is at times, but aren't the Kings missing on a golden boy in Stauskas? maybe a strech of 2 games where he'll get most of the minutes will do all the diffrence between a soft rookie and a tough role player? Just come on Mike, give the kid a chance to learn from these mistakes, why would you draft him if he's not getting chances to learn NBA on his own flesh?
So preseason, Nik was doing okay overall - nice shooting and nice understanding of the game. At times looked better than McLemore by a long shot, making us belive Ben is still the rookie.
Come the season, Nik ran into some trouble in his way: couldn't shoot the ball well and letting fans down on D. Well, he is a rookie after all... Not one rookie stood out from this year's class so far (maybe Parker, but for the time he's getting he's not living up to the cost yet) - and neither did Nik.
During that amazing 5 wins in a row for our beloved Kings, McLemore finally showed us what the hell Malone was trying to say the entire summer about BenMC and he really proved critics, such as moi, dead wrong: Got used to play D against good players, finally found his shot and started playing unselfish basketball.
So what does that do to Nik? well, not good at all:
No minutes for him to get used to the enviornment in the big leagues, no chance for him to show how much of a playmaker he could be, and really, no minutes for him to use to evolve in the league.
Question is, where do you think Nik is going? to remind you, McLemore got to start right from the begining of last season (scored 31 in one of his first 5 games I believe) - I'm not hating on Ben cause I love how good of a player he became and how important he is at times, but aren't the Kings missing on a golden boy in Stauskas? maybe a strech of 2 games where he'll get most of the minutes will do all the diffrence between a soft rookie and a tough role player? Just come on Mike, give the kid a chance to learn from these mistakes, why would you draft him if he's not getting chances to learn NBA on his own flesh?