Potential Future Third Member Of #SplashBrothers? Nik Stauskas Interviews With Golden State Warriors

Potential Future Third Member Of #SplashBrothers? Nik Stauskas Interviews With Golden State Warriors (Photo: 247sports.com)

Potential NBA Draft lottery pick Nik Stauskas interviewed with the Golden State Warriors yesterday night at the Draft Combine in Chicago, according to a report by Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press.

Standing 6’6″ and weighing 207 lbs, the Canadian-born shooting guard is coming off of his sophomore season with the Michigan Wolverines,

Warriors adviser Jerry West was there for the interview and Snyder reported that Stauskas was “star-struck” by West.

According to Brendan F. Quinn of MLive.com, Stauskas also has interviews with the following NBA teams:

On Wednesday, Stauskas met with Detroit, Sacramento, Minnesota, Phoenix and Oklahoma City. Thursday brought sit-downs with Memphis, Milwaukee, Boston, Golden State, Toronto and San Antonio.
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Meetings with Denver, Atlanta and Houston were scheduled for Friday.

An observer of the NBA Draft combine this week also tweeted the following this morning:

Not shocking Jerry West looked up from his newspaper to study Nick Stauskas warming up his jumper.

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballSource) May 16, 2014

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

A YouTube sensation for his three-point shot-making abilities, Stauskas posted this video on YouTube:

To add to the connections to Golden State, Stephen Curry got wind of the clip, retweeted it, and challenged Stauskas to a three-point contest, per Snyder:

He posted it on Twitter and it got some attention (“a little bit of a buzz”) but then suddenly his Twitter mentions went wild. An avid tweeter, he was curious why.
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Apparently Curry, the star guard for Golden State, had retweeted it.
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“He challenge me to a three-point contest on Twitter and I said sure,” Stauskas said.
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From there he contacted Curry’s “people and we tried to make it happen.”

Alas, NCAA regulations got in the way. As Snyder reports:

“He challenged me. We tried to do it and the NCAA had some restrictions with playing against a professional and having a competition,” Stauskas said at today’s NBA predraft combine. “It couldn’t happen, so hopefully we can still make that happen one day.”
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The whole challenge was set to be televised by TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, Stauskas said.
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“His people set a date for mid-July that they wanted to do it and of course I checked with Tom Wywrot our (Michigan) media guy and of course there was some NCAA violations and all of that stuff, so we couldn’t do it. Me and Steph, in the backyard.”

Stauskas is projected to be a fringe lottery pick, at 14th on DraftExpress’s current board and 15th on NBADraft.net’s. As a freshman at Michigan, Stauskas averaged 14.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game, while shooting 43.9% from beyond the arc. His sophomore campaign generally improved on those numbers: 19.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game to go along with 44.2% on three-pointers.

Mike Lucas of StandingOSports.com wrote in January, as Michigan went on a tear in the Big 10 conference scheduling:

The most underrated part of Nik Stauskas’ game is his ability to facilitate. Last season, John Beilein stuck Stauskas in the corner and let him shoot while Trey Burke facilitated. This year, Stauskas has been playing both roles of facilitator and scorer, and he leads Michigan in both points and assists per game.
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Stauskas is always the main focus of the opposing team’s defense, and he’s done a great job this season drawing double teams and then kicking it out to his open teammate. Everyone looks at him as just a scorer, but he’s developing into a very good all around player.

[NOTE: Saam Esfandiari contributed to this report.]

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