1. Lack of NBA success
So far in his four seasons in the league, Stauskas is labeled as a bust. He was a top-10 pick that was moved after one year and has now been on four different teams. He was supposed to be the next 3-point shooter and scoring playmaker like Klay Thompson or Bradley Beal, but has been nothing like either of the two.
For his career, Stauskas is averaging 7.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.4 steals and 0.3 blocks in 21.1 minutes per game while shooting 38.6 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from the 3-point line. He has played in a total of 267 games and only started in 63 of them.
The Blazers have found success in the past with players in similar situations and hopefully can get a breakout type season from Stauskas. They don’t have much time to waste anymore though. They are in a tough Western Conference and are in the prime years of Damian Lillard. They need to put better talent around him if Portland wants any chance of taking the next step. Stauskas is not the answer to that.
Stauskas also only has a career Player Efficiency Rating of 8.8. The league average for PER is 15.0. He has not had a good NBA career, and adding him to a Blazers team that is trying to win games and replace three key role players lost from the bench this summer does not make sense. Portland could have gone many different directions instead of adding Nik Stauskas to the team.