Nikolas Tomas Stauskas (born October 7, 1993) is a Canadian former professional basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A shooting guard, Stauskas played two seasons of college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines from 2012 to 2014. He was drafted eighth overall in the 2014 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings. Stauskas, whose family is of Lithuanian heritage, is a member of the Canadian national team.
As a freshman for the 2012–13 Michigan Wolverines, Stauskas was named Sports Illustrated National Freshman of the Week once, Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week three times and to the Wayman Tisdale Award, United States Basketball Writers Association's National Freshman of the Year, top 12 midseason list. During the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, he earned South All-Regional Team recognition. As a sophomore for the 2013–14 team, Stauskas went on to be named a 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball consensus All-American and was named Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year for the 2013–14 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season.
Stauskas has played for several NBA and NBA G League teams. In 2022, he reached the NBA Finals with the Celtics.
Early life Stauskas grew up in Mississauga, Ontario. His first experience with basketball came as a member of the Aušra Sports Club, which is a Toronto-based traveling team for children of Lithuanian descent. He became so devoted to basketball that his head coach at Michigan, John Beilein, said in 2013,He doesn't know anything about hockey, he doesn't know anything about football. The other day we had him try to throw a baseball pass as a press breaker. And he had never thrown a baseball.
High school career Until 2009, Stauskas played for Loyola Catholic Secondary School. He averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 2007–08 and 32 points, 14 rebounds and 7.5 assists in 2008–09. Stauskas also joined the premier Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team in Toronto, run by Ro Russell. Some of Russell's prior players, such as Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph had gone to the United States to complete their scholastic years. Stauskas spent the 2009–10 academic year at South Kent School, but he transferred to St. Mark's School the following year. He missed the 2009–10 basketball season as a result of a hip injury. Michigan Wolverines men's basketball head coach John Beilein became familiar with Stauskas during the Summer 2010 NBA camp prior to Stauskas's junior year. He visited Michigan that summer and was also being recruited by Villanova, Iowa State, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Florida and Providence. By the time he arrived at St. Mark's, he was expected to be an All-State performer. In the 2011 NEPSAC Class AA Championship game, Stauskas led St. Mark's in scoring with 17 points against Nerlens Noel and the Tilton School, but St. Marks lost 72–56. On March 26, 2011, Stauskas made a verbal commitment to Michigan. This commitment made him the second member of Michigan's recruiting class of 2012. That summer, he scored 27 points in an exhibition of Canadian high school all-stars against the Baylor Bears men's basketball team.
Prior to his senior year, ESPN named him as one of the top 25 three-point shooters in the national class of 2012. At the time of their November 2011 National Letter of Intent signings, Stauskas, Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary gave Michigan a consensus top 10 entering class for its 2012 class. Stauskas led St. Mark's to 67–57 victory in a 2012 Hoophall Classic contest with 16 points against Friends Central. As the season progressed, Stauskas (and Robinson) improved in the national player ratings to offset McGary's slide and maintain a top-rated class. He scored 19 to lead his school to a 59–53 2012 NEPSAC Class AA Championship game victory over Noel's Tilton. Stauskas earned the NEPSAC championship game MVP. He was selected to the 2012 All-NEPSAC Class AA first team (along with teammate Kaleb Tarczewski). Following these honors, Stauskas's stock and rankings continued to rise.
College career
The 2011–12 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team had been co-champions of 2011–12 Big Ten Conference, but lost both of its co-captains, Zack Novak and Stu Douglass, to graduation and three players as transfers. The team was returning a nucleus of All-Big Ten players Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Freshman season
Stauskas began his college career with the expectation that he would be a sharpshooter based on his performance in three-point field goal drills in which he had raised the bar for the team. In the championship rounds of the 2012 NIT Season Tip-Off tournament at Madison Square Garden on November 21 and 23, Michigan defeated Pittsburgh and Kansas State, respectively, to win the tournament. On November 26, Stauskas earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for his NIT tournament performance in which he averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 rebounds. On November 27, Michigan defeated its first ranked opponent of the season, NC State (#18 AP Poll/#18 Coaches' Poll), in the ACC–Big Ten Challenge with a then-career-high 20 points from Stauskas in a 79–72 victory. On December 1 against Bradley, Stauskas made his first career regular season start and posted a new career-high 22 points. For his first two 20 point performances, he repeated as Big Ten Freshman of the Week on December 3. On December 29, against Central Michigan, Stauskas posted 19 points on 5-for-8 three-point shooting. His 5 three-pointers and 7 rebounds were career-highs, earning him his third Big Ten Freshman of the Week on December 31.
Entering the day of December 31, Stauskas led the nation in three-point field goal percentage. On January 16, 2013, Sporting News named Stauskas the surprise player of the first half of the year. As late as January 28, Stauskas was leading the Big Ten in free throw shooting percentage (.833) as well as three-pointers made and was second in 3-point shooting percentage (.490). On that day, Michigan was ranked number one in the AP Poll with 51 of the 65 first place votes. It marked the first time Michigan ranked atop the AP Poll since the Fab Five 1992–93 team did so on December 5, 1992. On January 31, Stauskas and Robinson were named to the Wayman Tisdale Award (USBWA National Freshman of the Year) top 12 midseason list, recognizing their performances as being among the 12 best freshman performances in the NCAA competition. Stauskas finished the 18-game 2012–13 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season schedule with a 37% three-point percentage on 30-for-81 shooting during conference play.
Having made his last 20 consecutive free throws entering the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Sweet Sixteen, Stauskas ended the season with an 85.1% (74–87) free throw shooting percentage, which was better than the Big Ten Conference free throw shooting percentage leader, Adreian Payne (84.8%). In the regional finals on March 31 against Florida, Stauskas made all 6 of his three-point shot attempts, including all 5 in the first half as the team built a 41–17 lead before going into the half up 47–30. This marked the best NCAA Tournament single-game three-point shooting percentage in school history (min 5 attempts) since no other Wolverine has shot 100% with at least 5 attempts. Michigan advanced to the April 8 national championship game where the team lost to Louisville by an 82–76 margin. His 6 three-point shots was a new career best and his 22-point performance tied his career high. All his three-point shots came from the left corner. The 6 three-point shots pushed Stauskas to a Michigan freshman-season record total of 80, surpassing Tim Hardaway Jr.'s two-year-old record of 76. Six 3 point shots made without a miss was one shy of a conference record shared by Wolverine Glen Rice and 3 others (including David Lighty's 2011 NCAA Tournament performance). Stauskas joined McGary and Most Outstanding Player Trey Burke on the South All-Regional team. For the season, his .9 fouls per 40 minutes was second in the country.
Sophomore season
In the offseason, Stauskas added to his frame and to his vertical jump. On November 12, Stauskas posted career highs of 23 points and 5 assists in the second game of the regular season against South Carolina State. In the next game, Stauskas contributed a career-high 6 assists as well as 20 points against Iowa State on November 17. Stauskas scored a game-high 24 points on November 21 against Long Beach State in the first round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, surpassing his career high set two games before and giving him three consecutive 20-point performances for the first time in his career. Stauskas established another career high the next day against Florida State as he scored 26 points including 7 of the team's 13 points in overtime, despite scoring only 3 points in the first half. In the game, he set a career high with 9 made free throws and logged his fourth consecutive 20 point game. Following a Michigan timeout with 11 seconds in regulation, Stauskas made a layup to force overtime. In the championship game against Charlotte, Stauskas tallied 20 points and a career-high 3 steals. Although Michigan lost in the championship game, Stauskas earned tournament MVP honors. In the second half Stauskas twisted his ankle, but continued to play the final 9½ minutes. Stauskas sat out the November 29 game against to rest his ankle.