Nik Stauskas Complete Scouting Video

Uncia03

Uncia03

Starter
Since we drafted Nik Stauskas and there has been a lot of conversation about what sort of player he is and who he reminds us of.
I thought that the easiest way for people to come to their own conclusions was to really get a good look at this player.
We here at Kingsfans.com expect only the best, and that is what I've decided to do. I don't think there is anything this extensive out there of Stauskas' game, so for those of you who didn't get to see his games at Michigan, this will give you a great idea of who he is as a player.
What I've done is taken 8 of his games at Michigan last year and completely broken them down for your viewing pleasure.
The 8 games that were chosen were 4 of his toughest regular season games and the more important 4 NCAA tournament games.
There are 182 game clips with-in this video and it is broken down by his offensive and defensive game.
The commentary with-in the video are my thoughts on the various parts of his game.
I'm going to have the video available if you want to start at the beginning, but below that I will have links to various parts in the video if you just want to skip to a particular portion. (11 seconds into the video I also have a table of contents that show the times that you can skip to in order to review parts of his game)

I want to also mention that at the start of the video, in the 'Statistics' section I mention touch data which breaks down what Stauskas did whenever he touched the ball. That data was obtained through actually going through the game and seeing what he did, rather than by using an analytics site to get that information.

My simple conclusion after going through this exercise is that Stauskas is truly far more like Manu Ginobli or Steph Curry than he is Klay Thompson. He's so good in all phases of the pick-n-roll that I'm really excited to see what he's going to do when he gets to play next to a player of Cousins' caliber...because as you'll see in the film breakdown he wasn't playing alongside a truly dominant big man.
Also, he actually isn't horrible on the defensive end. He certainly needs a lot of work (like most rookies), and you'll see that in the film breakdown, but he seems more than capable of working with-in a team defensive scheme and his man-to-man defense and some of his PnR defense is pretty decent, though he does need a lot of work. A lock-down-defender he will never be, but he should prove serviceable in time.

Because this is a Kingsfans.com effort, after this post I'm going to also post Bajaden's scouting take and personal views on Stauskas. So it will be my post, but Bajaden's thoughts/comments/scouting take.

Ok, enough rambling. Time to get to the video and if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them.


If you don't want to watch all of this, or don't feel you have the time, I would encourage everyone to watch the Pick-n-Roll Offense at the very least. His ability to shoot, pass, and dribble off the PnR action is very good.

Table of Contents (Select a piece below and it will take you to the video portion)
STATISTICS (Including Touch Data and Shot Chart Data)
OFFENSE
Pick-n-Roll Offense
----Pick-n-Roll Shooting
----Pick-n-Roll Passing
----Pick-n-Roll Rim Attacks
Additional Passing (Drive & Kick, Entry, Drop-Off, Lob)
Catch and Shoot
Transition Offense
Isolation Offense
DEFENSE
Pick-n-Roll Defense
Transition Defense
Man Defense
Help Defense
Contesting Shots
Steals and Blocks (No Video)
Rebounding (No Video)
LEADERSHIP (Cool Video Moment)
 
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THE BELOW IS FROM BAJADEN. (COLLEGE SCOUT EXTRAORDINAIRE)

Nik Stauskas: SG, 6'6.5", 207 Lbs, Michigan, Sophmore.

35.6 MPG, 17.5 PPG, 47.0% FGP, 50.0% 2PP, 44.2% 3PP, 2.9 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.9 Turnovers per game.

Nik was born on October 7th, 1993. He's from the town of Mississauga, Ontario. He is of Lithuanian descent. Although Stauskas is a Canadian, he's never played ice hockey, and has said he knows nothing about the game. He also knows little or nothing about football, and in his one experience playing soccer, he ended up with a broken arm. And, until recently, he had never thrown a baseball in his life. Obviously, basketball is his game of choice.

He was introduced to basketball at age 7 while a member of the Ausra Sports club and fell in love with the game. He also became a fan of the Raptors, and Vince Carter in particular, who he once played one on one with at age 9. At one point he and his older brother were asked to choose from three choices on how to landscape the backyard. The choices being, a swimming pool, a putting green, or a basketball court. Easy choice for Nik. He and his brother would play for hours on end in all conditions. Often they would have to shovel off a foot of snow or more. They once played in an ice storm. There's no record other than his brothers word, but he said that Nik averaged around 50 PPG in middle school.

Nik spent his first two years of secondary school (highschool) at Loyola catholic in Ontario Canada. He then moved to South Kent Connecticut to attend school, but couldn't play that year due to a hip injury. He then transfered to St. Marks in Southborough Mass. where he excelled leading his team to two New England Prep School Athletic Council championship games. His school lost the first year going up against Nerlens Noel and Tilton. However the very next year his team won, and Stauskas was named the MVP of the game.

While Nik finally settled on Michigan as his school of choice, he wasn't without other suitors. He was recruited by Villanova, Iowa St., Georgetown, Notre Dame, Florida, and Providence. It didn't take long for Stauskas, in Michigan's 7th game, to break into the starting lineup. During his freshman year he was named Sports Illustrated national freshman player of the week once and Big 10 freshman player of the week three times. During his sophmore season he was named Big 10 conference player of the week 4 times. After this past season he was named a 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Consensus All American, and was also named the Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player Of The Year.

One of his close friends, and someone he played one on one with throughout his youth is Kevin Pangos, the PG for Gonzaga. Another player he played with, and against is Harrison Barnes. He also played in the FIBA Americas games on the Canadian under 16 national team.

I won't bore you with any more praise of his accomplishments. We know he can score, and is very skilled. He's an above average athlete, a good ballhandler, and a very good passer with great court vision and very good BBIQ. How all that will translate in the short or long team is anyone's guess. I'm personally very optimistic, but only time will tell. He'll have some great games, and he'll stumble along the way as well. He has areas that need improvement. One being his rebounding. He needs to get stronger, and he needs to work on his defense.

His defense has been criticized mostly by talking heads. In fact, he has at times played very good defense, and at times very poor defense. So I would call his defense inconsistent, which means he has a foundation on which to build. He's a gym rat and very ambitious. He wants to be a great player, so he has motivation, and a great work ethic. Tell him he needs to be a good defender to be great or become an all star, and I'm sure he'll become the best defender he can be.

Stauskas' career free throw percentage of 83.16% is second in school history, and his 44.10% three point shot percentage ranks fifth.[135]


YearTeamGPGSMPGFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
2012–13Wolverines393330.5.463.440.8513.01.30.60.211.0
2013–14Wolverines363635.6.470.442.8242.93.30.60.317.5
 
chasen4r1 said:
This is incredible Uncia. Can't wait to hear your thoughts. I can't imagine the amount of work you've put into all this!
Click to expand...

Yeah, my eyes are bleeding just a little bit after going through so much game footage, then breaking everything down.
I've probably watched each of those clips a good 15+ times while trying to determine how to categorize them and where they should fit, ect.
But in the end, it really should give everyone here a great idea of what sort of game he has, especially in the pick-n-roll.

As an aside, I think my favorite single clip is in the Entry Pass section.
It's an entry pass after a delayed slip to the basket against Indiana. The pass is absolutely perfect and leads to an easy basket.
Here it is: Entry Pass Clip

I should also mention the order in which the clips are shown.
Once I created the various categories, each clip takes place in chronological order. Starting from the start of the 1st Michigan State game and ending in the closing moments of the Kentucky NCAA game.
So if there are 10 clips in a section, those clips will go in chronological order. Basically once you hit the Kentucky game you know you're about finished up with the section and will be moving on to a new section. (Provided that there were any clips of that category in the Kentucky game)
 
Haven't watched the video yet, but the text breakdown of his D is spot on. I'd attribute it to him only seriously working on defense for a year. Didn't seem like team defense had ever been stressed at a young age. He'll get better. I saw it in every game in the last 2 years.
 
This is scary.

Jimmer appeared like more NBA ready at same stage of their career. And it looks like he moves slower than Jimmer and he does not care much to give more on defense. I hope I am wrong.
 
Unica, a very well done video. Honestly, I have no complaints. I've watched every game he's played in as a Wolverine and I think you've done a great job showing who he is. I will say that you've chosen the best defenses in the B1G to showcase, so you've gotten a better indication of his NBA potential. A lot of the problems you've pointed out seem to be correctable and knowing how hard this kid works, I think he's going to be alright.

Also, if you guys notice, our big men (Morgan and Horford) were worthless. I can't tell you how many times they dropped an easy bucket after a brilliant pass or just fumbled the ball or were forced to kick it out to someone else because they're too weak to score over good defenders. It was a source of frustration for our fans. If McGary had been healthy, Nik might have had a 5-6 assist average and there's no way Kentucky would have beat us. Ugh, oh well...

Will be buying #10 Jersey and heading to more games this year.
 
Prince_XY said:
This is scary.

Jimmer appeared like more NBA ready at same stage of their career. And it looks like he moves slower than Jimmer and he does not care much to give more on defense. I hope I am wrong.
Click to expand...
So jimmer appeared more ready at the end of his sophomore year? Exactly what part of his game was he better at? Certainly not the pick And roll. Certainly not his ball handling.
 
Prince_XY said:
This is scary.

Jimmer appeared like more NBA ready at same stage of their career. And it looks like he moves slower than Jimmer and he does not care much to give more on defense. I hope I am wrong.
Click to expand...

What? I don't think you're watching the same video. And Jimmer got away with a lot because of his level of competition. This video shows Nik up against the best defenses (and defenders) in the big ten and some of the best in all of college basketball. He's not playing Fresno State. You should also remember that Jimmer was a senior when he left school. Nik was just a sophomore and had only really been "the man" for the sophomore year. He also has way more upside and about 4 inches on him.

The NBA will fix a lot of his issues. Maybe not right away, but I guarantee he'll be the first in the gym and last to leave.
 
This is what I meant by same stage of their career => last year of basketball before they get drafted to the NBA.

Sorry if you guys are offended and I also stated I hope I am wrong, because just like you - all I want is for the Kings to improve. And also I have to admit I based my opinion only on how he moves and on what I see he does with the ball.

But honestly, I can see another Jimmer on Stauskas.

A very good shooter with a tad better ball handling skills than Jimmer. He appears to me as another weak and slow player (SOFT) who will be a big defensive liability.
 
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I wish it to be known that I contributed immensely to this project...

...by commissioning it. :p


Suffice it to say that Uncia went above and beyond, and then beyond the above and beyond.

1) it will be so SO nice to see somebody in a Kings uniform actually run a pick and roll where they are actually running it for the roller, and not themselves
2) all of this video does though still leave open the athleticism question. He wasn't exactly leaving guys in the dust in the footage, guys were right there, and now its another step up. Of course now he also has DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay making him an afterthought for the defense rather than a key.
 
Wonderful job Uncia03 !
Very useful for those who, like me, aren't able to watch NCAA games.
I think Stauskas will be OK. Offensively, he can bring a lot of positive things to this team.
 
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OK, so I'm new to Stauskas and his game. I've read plenty about him and saw a few clips, but I was one of the Kings fans who were scratching their heads when Stauskas was announced as the Kings pick. I understood our need for outside shooting, but figured that the investment we made in Ben last year (painfully watching him make 3-years worth of mistakes in his rookie year) meant we could expect some dividends this year. So to pick someone who is clearly a shooting guard who is going to have to fight for minutes with another shooting guard that we're already invested in, just seemed out of synch. So what was I expecting before watching this collection of video clips? Basically a taller version of Jimmer, but with better handles. What did I find? Well, the comparison with Jimmer begins and ends with their ability to shoot the lights out. Stauskas only needs to improve his D to have the complete package. And he's got moxy to spare. And he has the skill set to make his teammates better. He's much faster and quicker than I expected, although he'll never be confused with the NBA's speed demons. But you know what? Neither was (is) Tyreke. But the comparison with Tyreke is as off-base as the comparison with Jimmer as they all have very different games. Stauskas looks and plays much more like a Ginobili or a Curry. And I'll take that any day of the week.
 
After watching all of these offensive sets you should get a good idea of how Michigan wanted to run their offense.
They use a lot of Pick-n-Roll as well as a lot of ball movement, player movement, creating angles by using screens to get good looks and driving lanes.

One of the things I liked most about Stauskas while putting this together is the fact that he is absolutely not a chucker. In the NCAA games his touches went up 50%, but he didn't use those touches to dominate the scoring opportunities. Instead he'd see if he was in position to making a scoring attempt or to set someone else up, and if there wasn't anything there he'd move the ball, then move himself and hope that the Beilein offense would generate a good look.

Now with the 35 second shot-clock you can afford to be far more patient than you are in the NBA, but I think it's important to see what sort of offense he comes from, and it's great that he comes from an offense which was based on two concepts: Pick-n-Roll & Ball-Movement/Player Movement/Screening Action
Both of those are the featured styles in the NBA.

To give you a great look at how Stauskas handled his NCAA touches, here is a great clip where he touches the ball and moves it in the flow of the offense before finally getting the ball in position to do something with it.
Here is the Clip: Great Offense

In fact, here is the raw data of his touches for his 8 games. I saw someone in a different thread say something like 'His career scoring game was only 26 points. If that's his best scoring in college why do people think he can become such a good scorer in the NBA.'

I saw someone (It might have been Monster) reply that Michigan didn't run an offense which featured him as the primary scorer, but instead everyone got a shot.
This is the exact reason why Stauskas' game high isn't some ridiculous number.
In the 8 games I watched, the highest scoring opportunities he got was 19, and that was a good bit higher than any of the other 7 games. (Keep in mind that if he got fouled and went to the line I'm including that as a scoring opportunity)
So if he goes 50% from the field on his highest scoring opportunity night, and if most of those are 2point shots, you're not going to get more than 25 or so points.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure and discerning eye, here is the raw touch data so you can see a game-by-game breakdown.
I have the games labeled Game 1, Game 2, ect. If you want to know which games those are just jump to the Statistics portion of the video and the first thing it shows are the games. So games 1-4 are the regular season and Games 5-8 are the NCAA with Game 8 being the final one at Kentucky.

upload_2014-7-6_10-13-39.jpeg
 
Monster said:
Unica, a very well done video. Honestly, I have no complaints. I've watched every game he's played in as a Wolverine and I think you've done a great job showing who he is. I will say that you've chosen the best defenses in the B1G to showcase, so you've gotten a better indication of his NBA potential. A lot of the problems you've pointed out seem to be correctable and knowing how hard this kid works, I think he's going to be alright.

Also, if you guys notice, our big men (Morgan and Horford) were worthless. I can't tell you how many times they dropped an easy bucket after a brilliant pass or just fumbled the ball or were forced to kick it out to someone else because they're too weak to score over good defenders. It was a source of frustration for our fans. If McGary had been healthy, Nik might have had a 5-6 assist average and there's no way Kentucky would have beat us. Ugh, oh well...

Will be buying #10 Jersey and heading to more games this year.
Click to expand...

Yeah, watching Morgan and Horford blow a lot of easy stuff handed to them by Stauskas was tough, especially when you are seeing it over and over again.

I will admit that the only reason I wanted to watch Michigan this year was to see McGary. Once he hurt his back I pretty much dropped Michigan off of my list of teams to watch every weekend as this year there were so many college prospects on so many different teams and I only have so much time to watch all of these games. Stauskas wasn't a strong NBA prospect and GRIII didn't impress me last year and in the few games I saw in the early part of the year I didn't see much to change my opinion of him.
I'm a bit envious of the Thunder because I think they got an absolute steal in McGary, he's going to be a great basketball player.

Anyway, Stauskas wasn't even close to being on my radar, but as the season went on his stock started moving up and I started catching some of his games.

My favorite team to watch is Kentucky because they are loaded with NBA talent and since I watch college basketball to scout the up-and-coming talent they are the team to watch year in and year out...as long as Calipari is coaching that team.

But I will say that when Kentucky met up with Michigan, as much as I was rooting for Kentucky to move on, I actually felt that it would be a win if Stauskas got Michigan past Kentucky, because at that point in the tournament he was the most impressive NBA talent that I still wanted to see more of. I've got a good 20 games of Kentucky and Randle, so I didn't need to see him or James Young any more, so...I was sort of hoping that Michigan would pull out the win so I could see another game of Stauskas.

Still he was one of the better players in the Tournament this year, and it's obvious that everyone recognized the hard work he put in between his freshman and sophomore year since he ended up getting drafted 8th in a completely stacked draft. Hopefully what he said is true about not being satisfied with where he is at. He's going to have to work hard to get stronger and he's going to have to internalize those scouting reports so he doesn't get burned on defense.
It would be great to have a rookie prospect with no question marks, but there are going to be question marks about his ability to defend at the next level. Hopefully he puts in the time needed to alleviate those things to the best of his ability and hopefully at the NBA level that will be enough.
 
Prince_XY said:
This is scary.

Jimmer appeared like more NBA ready at same stage of their career. And it looks like he moves slower than Jimmer and he does not care much to give more on defense. I hope I am wrong.
Click to expand...
You're a terrible scout lol. Uncia you did a terrific job. Thank you for this.
 
Man this video gets me excited for next season.... Nik looks like he just need a little strength to be able to move around defensive players, and as well to finish stronger at the rim. His speed look fast enough.. His ability to pass to the big man off the pick and roll will help the Kings tremendously.
 
Wonderful video! Appreciate the work

The way he handles the ball is definitely similar to Manu. Very similar. Stauskas seems like a better shooter but a worse driver. I actually think a good comparison is Linsanity-era Jeremy Lin- amazing shooting, good smart passes (Lin & Chandler looked like an A+ duo for a second in NY), some wild driving but manages to finish. Hopefully Stauskas size will help him have longer staying power than Lin, plus he also seems to be a better passer than Lin. I think his driving ability is too weak to compare to Manu, although the style of attack is similar.

His ball-handling on the perimeter and off the pick-and-roll looks very good, and he makes a lot of "wow" passes- angles to players that most guy's wouldn't see, delivered crisply and on-point. I'd love to see Cousins on the receiving end of some of those.

He looks BAD driving the lane, though. He looks like he has poor handles when attacking, tends to lose control a bit, and has trouble finishing. If he makes those drives in the NBA, he'll get eaten alive.

Defense is suspect. He sags off 2-3 feet on the perimeter, let's guys get angles on him, and reaches his arms out to slow them down (foul city). Bad on rotation. But he DOES look like he's putting out effort, and seems fine when he's bodying up a guy, especially close to the basket. I think there's enough to work with there, but if he falls asleep regularly, he will get murdered by aggressive driving guards in the NBA.

His shooting and P&R ability, as well as passing in general, is definitely great enough to be excited about.
 
I liked the video Uncia, nice work. Nik is very young and still has room to grow physically and skill wise. I can't wait to see him light up Summer League! I hope the Bigs are ready to help with picks to free Nik up. I guaranty you the other NBA teams are watching videos like yours to prepare to stop him and take advantage of him on defense.
 
Uncia03 said:
After watching all of these offensive sets you should get a good idea of how Michigan wanted to run their offense.

I saw someone (It might have been Monster) reply that Michigan didn't run an offense which featured him as the primary scorer, but instead everyone got a shot.
This is the exact reason why Stauskas' game high isn't some ridiculous number.
In the 8 games I watched, the highest scoring opportunities he got was 19, and that was a good bit higher than any of the other 7 games. (Keep in mind that if he got fouled and went to the line I'm including that as a scoring opportunity)
So if he goes 50% from the field on his highest scoring opportunity night, and if most of those are 2point shots, you're not going to get more than 25 or so points.


View attachment 4907
Click to expand...

To add on to that, not only did Michigan run an offense where everyone got touches/shots, but it ranked near the bottom in the NCAA in pace. 30 seconds ran off the clock pretty much every time they got down the floor. The slow pace and style of offense combined with the #1 overall efficiency ranking (Kenpom), should speak volumes about Stauskas as an efficient scorer. Averaging an efficient 18/game in an offense that featured Glenn Robinson III, McGary (beginning of the year), and Caris LeVert (projected 2015 1st rounder), was VERY impressive out of him.
 
Uncia03 said:
I saw someone (It might have been Monster) reply that Michigan didn't run an offense which featured him as the primary scorer, but instead everyone got a shot.
This is the exact reason why Stauskas' game high isn't some ridiculous number.
In the 8 games I watched, the highest scoring opportunities he got was 19, and that was a good bit higher than any of the other 7 games. (Keep in mind that if he got fouled and went to the line I'm including that as a scoring opportunity)
Click to expand...

Yes, it was me that said it. Truly our offense was an equal opportunist. Most nights 3-4 guys carried the scoring load and it really just depended on what the defense was trying to do. What I loved about Trey Burke two years ago is that when the game was in the balance, he took over. That's exactly what Nik would do this past year and we loved him for it.
 
Amazing video! ESPN the Mag had a ceiling/floor of Lillard/Lin. I'm thinking the Lin comparison is based on the pick and roll offense to go along with possible struggles on the defensive end.
 
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