With 17.3 seconds left in the first quarter, it’s Sixers ball and the shot clock is unplugged. During his rookie year in Sacramento, Nik Stauskas would most likely be found in one of the corners in the same scenario. That is, if he was even on the floor at all.
Only two games into his sophomore season, Stauskas can tell things are going to be a little different. He has more on his plate, which he welcomes.
“My role with the Kings was more of a spot-up shooter, just spacing the floor,” Stauskas said. “Here, they want the ball in my hands. They want me to make plays out of the pick-and-roll.”
Stauskas and Robert Covington were inserted into the starting lineup for Monday night’s Cavs game and the Sixers responded with a 32-point first quarter against what should be an above-average defense. They knocked down 12 shots in 12 minutes after making only 19 the whole game on Friday against the Utah Jazz.
It’s just one quarter, but there is some reason to hope here that shooting on the wings can jumpstart what has been a miserable offense the last few years.
“Lot of space, lot of movement, the ball was flying around, we were going up and down the court,” Stauskas said. “That’s the way we want to play.”
Isaiah Canaan is currently in the starting lineup, which means that the Sixers have above-average shooting at the 1-3 positions. So when Brown runs a play for Stauskas, it’s not like Matthew Dellavedova can leave Lil’ Sip. Good thing, too, because Stauskas has some game off the bounce. Watch him go Hot Sauce and put Jared Cunningham on spin cycle here:
Stauskas’ ability to handle the rock shouldn’t be unexpected, because spot-up shooters don’t get picked eighth in the draft. As a sophomore at Michigan, 29.5 percent of Sauce Castillo’s possessions came as a pick-and-roll ball handler per Draft Express.
After coming to Philadelphia in a trade over the summer, Stauskas said that Brett Brown envisioned him as both a playmaker and floor-spacer.
“That’s what made me so successful at Michigan,” Stauskas said. “I played in the pick-and-roll and that’s what got me to this point.”
Even if Stauskas’ solid start is a sort of pleasant surprise, we knew he would at least be in the fold. The same can’t be said for undrafted point guard T.J. McConnell, but there the Arizona product was, with 12 assists and zero turnovers in his third NBA game.
McConnell isn’t very big. He isn’t very athletic. He hardly even looks at the basket on some possessions. But what he can do is run a pick-and-roll, keep his dribble alive, and find open teammates. For lack of a better description, McConnell just knows how to play.
“I think I can get a lot better at it, and that’s a great thing,” McConnell said of running the pick-and-roll.
The major area where McConnell could improve is as a shooter (46.2 TS%), and it remains to be seen if he can do that. Heck, it remains to be seen if he can keep up the current pace he’s at. But it’s no mistake that of the Sixers’ top nine players by minutes on the young season, the offense running at its best with McConnell in the game (103.5 points per-100).
Even his answers are simple.
“My goal in there is just get the ball moving and rolling, getting it to Jah and Nerlens,” McConnell said. “When we’re moving, passing, and screening, I think we’re pretty hard to guard.”
When McConnell has been on the floor, that has actually been true.
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