TORONTO — Nik Stauskas has learned a lot over the course of his basketball career.
A veteran of five NBA seasons, Stauskas played last in Europe, but after just that one season abroad he’s opted to try to make an NBA comeback, making use of the G League’s new “NBA Vet Selection” rule that allows teams to add one player with five or more years of NBA experience to their roster in order to join his pseudo-hometown team Raptors 905.
“I think there was mutual interest there,” Stauskas said Monday about his decision to join the 905. “[I’m] just grateful that they’ve given me this opportunity to come here and play for them. And yeah, I’m just excited. I’m just excited to get back on the court and play.”
The Mississauga, Ont., native came to basketball prominence thanks to a stellar two-season career at Michigan, where among other accolades he was named the Big 10 Player of the Year in 2014. This led Stauskas to make the decision to leave college and eventually become a lottery pick when he was selected No. 8 overall in the 2014 draft by the Sacramento Kings.
Since then, however, Stauskas’ steady upward career arc has taken something of a nosedive as he has struggled to find a proper home in the NBA, having played for five different teams while appearing in just 335 games and averaging a little under 20 minutes per contest as well as scoring a mere 6.8 points per game between the 2014-15 and 2018-19 seasons.
And so, after five seasons in the NBA, Stauskas packed his bags and went overseas to play last season with Spanish club Kirolbet Baskonia.
[snippet id=4725691]
But after just the lone stint in Europe, the combination of the pandemic and the allure of an NBA return proved to be the right mix to prompt Stauskas into giving the G League and the 905 a shot as he attempts to reach his goals again.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity for this group to come together and play and get better,” Stauskas said. “Obviously, there’s a lot going on in the world right now. I just feel we’re fortunate the NBA and the G League was able to kind of put this bubble together and give us an opportunity to play.
“Obviously, with the NBA kind of going through what it’s going through and teams postponing games and missing guys due to COVID, I think there’s definitely gonna be a lot of attention on the G League this year, and it kind of presents a good opportunity for a lot of us to showcase.”
He later added: “For me, the goal has always been to play in the NBA. I’m just grateful for the 905 giving me this opportunity. But yeah, I just felt like this was a great opportunity to showcase and potentially get back to the league.”
Stauskas and the 905 started training camp for the NBA G League season on Sunday, and their first game is slated for next week on Feb. 10. The entire G League season will play out of the same Walt Disney World bubble the conclusion to the NBA’s last season did, so there will be opportunity there for him and other players to potentially fill open NBA roster spots quickly as that proved to be a relatively safe environment.
Until another chance with an NBA club comes, however, Stauskas will be looking to re-establish himself with the 905 after nearly a year off from basketball.
He had surgery last February on his left knee and hasn’t played professional basketball since. Additionally, he got married in August, and those two factors played into him not returning to Europe this season.
“Going back to Europe was definitely an option,” said Stauskas. “It was tough for me, though. A lot of those teams were starting back up in August and I had just finished getting married, and at that point I felt like I still wasn’t fully recovered from my surgery, and I just felt like between the pandemic, between the rehab process, getting married, it just didn’t make sense for me to kind of move myself back overseas and go right back into a season. So even more reason why I felt like this was such a good opportunity to come in here and play for this team.”
So, due to all of the elements involved, the stars kind of aligned for Stauskas and the 905. And it figures to be for the benefit of Toronto’s G League outfit because of the wealth of experience the 27-year-old brings to the table.
“Nik is gonna do a couple things,” said 905 general manager Chad Sanders. “One, we love the shooting and the ability to stretch the court and provide driving lanes for us to create in our offence. And two, he’s a veteran. He’s been through this. I think we have a very balanced roster this year with some rookies who are fresh out of college and then some guys that have been both in the NBA and even [had] the overseas experience. So he’s been through this and some of the young guys can really look up to him for advice.
“He’s a pro off the court. You can see him taking care of his body, nutrition, and sleep, and things like that. I think he’s a really good veteran for some of these young guys to look up to.”
Head coach Patrick Mutombo echoed Sanders’ thoughts about Stauskas as well: “Nik is a great shooter, he’s a veteran, has been around, played overseas, he’s played in the NBA and we love his disposition. We have a lot of young guys on our team also, so he brings [it] on the basketball side, but also off the court [he’s] somebody people can go up to and ask questions. So, he’s a valuable resource to have.”
[snippet id=4931508]
In particular, some of the younger players on the 905 roster will be able to lean on the fact that Stauskas knows what it’s like to get down on yourself as they’re chasing this near-impossible NBA dream.
“One of the things that I’ve tried to work on over the last couple of years — and it’s still a work in progress, but I feel like it helps me in a pretty positive way — is just realizing the basketball, it’s not who I am, it’s just something that I’m good at and something that I do, and just kind of not putting my self worth all on the basketball court,” said Stauskas. “In the past, I’ve done that. In the past I’ve kind of, the way I feel, the way I think about myself is all dependent on how I’m playing, and obviously if you do that there are so many ups and downs throughout the course of a season or a career that it’ll drive you a little bit crazy. So that’s the main thing that I think this whole experience has taught me is that there’s a lot more to life than just basketball.”
And as Stauskas has matured over the years and his view has shifted on what’s actually important in life, he’s gained key perspective on his own NBA career and what he used to have.
“I think one thing that has definitely changed for me is just having a greater appreciation for one of those jobs in the NBA. I’ll be the first to say that there was a number of times over my five years in the NBA where I truly took that position for granted. Only 450 jobs in the world and just sometimes going through personal struggles or not playing as well as I wanted to, I took it for granted, I really didn’t cherish those moments.
“Every time I stepped on the floor I didn’t cherish it as much as I will moving forward. And I just think the last couple years for me have just given me a different perspective where, when I do get back, I think mentally I’ll just be a lot more appreciative of the opportunity and in turn it will just make me play that much harder.”
Like many others who ended up flying too close to the sun too quickly in their careers, Stauskas had to learn the harsh realities of the NBA the hard way.
He has appeared to have learned from it, though, and will now do his best to apply those lessons to this new opportunity with Raptors 905.
[relatedlinks]
