Nik Stauskas: Can The Rookie’s Game Outshine His ‘Controversial’ Comments?

Nobody thought the Sacramento Kings would chose Nik Stauskas with the eighth overall pick in this year’s draft. Even after rocketing up the charts during his sophomore year at Michigan, every major mock draft still had Stauskas going somewhere between No. 9 and No. 13. When the Kings grabbed him at No. 8, the expectations for the Canadian-born shooting guard immediately started to grow.

Stauskas made a big splash on his very first day of NBA competition — unfortunately it was with his postgame comments after the Kings’ 99-94 exhibition loss to the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 5. According to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee, Stauskas said:

"“I understand that I’m a rookie and I’m white, so people are going to attack me at all times. Just coming out there in the game, I felt it right away.”"

To no surprise, this quote earned Stauskas more than his fair share media coverage.  Following Sacramento’s second preseason game on Oct. 7, which also happened to be his 21st birthday, Stauskas tried to clarify his remarks from two days earlier.  He did not back down from his original statement though.  Via James Ham of ESPN.com, the rookie said:

"“I was very surprised. People kind of took it too far with what I was trying to say. I wasn’t trying to get anyone to feel sorry for me. I wasn’t trying to be controversial or anything like that. I was just trying to keep it real. … I’ve said stuff like that before and I don’t take that back, because I’m not trying to offend anyone, I’m not trying to be controversial, I’m just saying that’s just really how I feel.“Some people may have a problem with it, some people may not, but if you’ve ever played the game of basketball, you understand that there’s certain stereotypes and certain reputations that certain players have and based on that, people are going to play a certain way against you.”"

Despite earning headlines with his postgame interviews, Stauskas also put up some fairly solid numbers in each of his first two contests.  Coming off the bench in the opener, Stauskas went 4-for-8 from the floor, 2-for-5 from three point land and 2-for-2 from the free throw line, totaling 12 points in 26 minutes of action.  In his second outing, Stauskas started and shot the ball extremely well, going 5-for-6 from the floor, 2-for-2 from downtown and 1-for-1 at the line to finish with 13 points in 26 minutes.

However, the rookie’s third game was a bit of a disappointment.  Relegated back to the bench, Stauskas made just two of six field goal attempts (0-for-2 on threes) and scored four points in 21 minutes.  Also noteworthy, he didn’t say anything of interest afterwards either.

Three preseason games is far too small a sample to even begin to judge what kind of NBA player Stauskas may be.  But he’s clearly self-confident and not afraid to speak his mind, which should bode well for the 21-year-old.  That and the ability to knock down 15 consecutive three-pointers in 46 seconds…