8. Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers
I may be a bit higher on Tyrese Haliburton than most but I think he’s an absolute star. I think his best is yet to come and he has a very real chance of being a top 5 point guard in the league one day. Haliburton is primed to have the best season of his career thus far and the fact that he’s only 23 years old has to be viewed as very exciting and encouraging. During his first full season with the Indiana Pacers (after being traded from the Sacramento Kings), Haliburton averaged 21 points, 10 assists, and four rebounds on 49 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent shooting from 3-point range.
There’s not much that Haliburton can’t do on the floor as a 6-foot-5 point guard, and he’s still getting better as a player. You can probably make the argument that if he played for any other team or market, he’d be a bigger star at this point in his career. The fact that he’s already growing into a household name with the Pacers is a testament to how good of a talent he is.
How big of a step Haliburton takes this season will tell us a lot about his ceiling moving forward.