Even though he has yet to prove it at an NBA level, Nik Stauskas is a threat from beyond the arc. It’s one of the reasons the Sacramento Kings drafted him so high, and one of the reasons he could make a big impact on the Philadelphia 76ers, provided he gets healthy and rediscovers his stroke.
Presumably, Stauskas has been in the gym as much as possible this summer, hoisting up shot after shot. But maybe that’s part of the problem. It’s never a bad thing to shake things up a bit, whether that’s in your personal or professional life. So, instead of shooting basketballs through a hoop continuously, maybe it’d help Stauskas to shoot other objects through a hoop, which is exactly what he did on TSN.
He fared pretty well with the football, but it’s not like we haven’t seen that before from other athletes. A cabbage, though; no NBA player (that we know of) has practiced his shooting with a cabbage. Stauskas gave it a whirl and, eureka, he hit it. Stauskas’ kryptonite, however, was the cauliflower (something to which we can all relate, of course). Try as he might, Stauskas just couldn’t sink it.
The question, then, is did this drill accomplish anything? Sure, Stauskas sank a few shots, but since the cauliflower cursed him, will he forever be plagued by it? When he gets an open look, will he feel not a ball, but a cauliflower, and psych himself out? These are serious questions, one the Sixers must address before the season starts.
