Boss with the Sauce adds some meat to his game
PHILADELPHIA >> Whenever Nik Stauskas makes a threepoint shot in a home game, he will hear the intended tribute, loud and clear.
“Sauce Castilloooooooooooooooo!” the announcer will shout. And with that, the legend will increase. So, too, will the misconception.
The gimmick is fun, something the Sixers will do to inject in-game interest in a team eternally trying to rebuild. It was born out of a mangled, closedcaptioning interpretation in Sacramento. Somehow, “Stauskas” came out as “Sauce Castillo,” and people laughed and the nickname stuck and, well, it was all mostly harmless. When Stauskas became a Sixer last season, the handle was a convenient way to underline the outside-shooting excellence Stauskas had shown at Michigan in order to become the eighth overall pick in the 2014 draft.
To fans in the Wells Fargo Center stands, Sauce Castillo was that threepoint shooting entertainer. As for Nik Stauskas, he was just a guy who played for a losing basketball team.
Turns out, the legend was oversold.
Turns out, the complete player was underappreciated.
“Right now, he has as much ‘game’ as anybody on our team, in the wings,” Brett Brown was saying Wednesday, before a game against the Atlanta Hawks. “He can put it to the floor. He can make a three. He can make a pass. He can run a pick and roll. I am now making him a point guard. I am just ruthlessly on him on his defense. I’ll never let go of that. And slowly, I think that, too, is getting better. He lets me coach him. And I just think for all those reasons, he is really having a heck of a year. And I think he’s going to keep getting better.”
If nothing else, the Sixers provided surprises this season. Dario Saric was quicker to adapt to the NBA than even his most passionate supporters might have hinted. T.J. McConnell went from a novelty point guard to nights when his style of play invited Steve Nash comparisons. Robert Covington improved from a shooting threat to a gamechanging defender. Joel Embiid, who was expected to be good, was, spectacular, even in his limited minutes.
But high on that list of unexpected fan treats, and rising on it, has been Stauskas. In a season when the Sixers were short on healthy players and long on opportunities, the 6-6 guard grew from a player whose professional future was in question to a multi-ply contributor and sturdy franchise foundation piece. And maybe it was because he was falsely characterized as a three-point shooter and nothing more, but his development as an emergency point guard, useful forward and improving defender has been shocking. More accurately, it has been shocking to almost everyone … but him.
When Jerryd Bayless, Ben Simmons and Sergio Rodriguez were injured earlier, there was Stauskas raising his hand, asking for the ball, volunteering for point-guard shifts. And if that sounded overly ambitious, it was only because of the false image of him as a shooter only. Because though it was not pronounced, Stauskas did essentially play some lead guard in his two seasons in the Big Ten.
“I wasn’t necessarily bringing the ball up the floor, but as soon as we got into our half-court offense, it always ended with me playing the pick-and-roll pretty much,” he said. “So it’s kind of similar to what I do here. The only difference is that I am bringing the ball up. And that’s not really that difficult to do, as long as they are not putting the full-court press on.”
With Simmons and McConnell, the Sixers will be low on point-guard opportunities next season. And in theory, they will have a heightened need for wing shooters, allowing Simmons to make optimum use of his legendary court vision. But if injuries occur — and in this sport, they do — Stauskas will be both a ready and proven lead-guard option.
“It’s something I feel comfortable doing,” he said. “It gives me the chance to have the ball in my hands and play in the pick-and-roll and be a playmaker. And I think that’s where I am at my best. When I am at the shooting guard, I am spacing the floor. And a lot of times, it ends up with me standing on the wing or standing in the corner. As good as a shooter as I have been in my career, and that’s what I’m known for, that’s not the best part of my game. The best part of my game is the ability to make plays and attack. So I get excited when I have the opportunity to play backup point guard.”
It’s what full-service basketball players do. They contribute in multiple areas. Someday, maybe, Sauce Castillo will be credited with a well-executed pickand-roll feed or a drive for a two-point shot. And maybe Nik Stauskas can be celebrated for a looping, threepoint swish.
“Honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to what they say,” said Stauskas, who has had fun with the alter-ego, even if it never was his idea. “It was something I did pay attention to before. Anybody who has watched us play this year does know that most of the time my role is to spot up and knock shots down. But I am able to do other things out there as well.”
A surprisingly satisfying season later, that is something worth shouting about.