Nikolas Tomas Stauskas (born October 7, 1993) is a Canadian professional basketball player who last played for the Boston Celtics of 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.
Stauskas played for Canada in the 2009 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship held in Argentina. He helped lead the Canadian junior national team to a bronze medal, which qualified them for the 2010 FIBA Under-17 World Championship. He averaged 9.4 points per game in the tournament, including a game-high 21 points in a 126–78 loss against the United States team led by Bradley Beal and James Michael McAdoo on June 20, 2009. First overall 2013 NBA draft pick Anthony Bennett was one of Stauskas' teammates in the tournament. Stauskas was later invited to train with the Canadian senior national team.
He represented Canada at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, contributing 111 points in 9 games—including 18-for-36 three-point shooting, but did not play in the team's final game. Food poisoning had impaired him in the semifinal loss against Venezuela, and the illness caused him to miss the bronze medal game against Mexico, which Canada won 87–86.
Stauskas is the son of Paul and Ruta Stauskas. His brother's name is Peter. Three of Stauskas's four grandparents lived in Lithuania before World War II. Stauskas previously attended Lithuanian Saturday School in Toronto and is able to understand and speak some Lithuanian.
2014-2015 |
2015-2018 |
2017-2018 |
2018-2019 |
2018-2019 |
2019-2020 |
2020-2021 |
2021-2022 |
2021-2022 |
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| Miami Heat | Appearances | NBA | 2021-2022 | 2 |
| Miami Heat | Assists | NBA | 2021-2022 | 1 |
| Miami Heat | Points | NBA | 2021-2022 | 11 |
| Miami Heat | Rebounds | NBA | 2021-2022 | 3 |