Indiana Pacers: Comparing Tyrese Haliburton to 5 generational guards

So far in the 22-23 season, Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has looked like the sky is limit for his career. There is a legitimate possibility he could go down as one of the greatest players ever to put on the Blue and Gold, a franchise with a true love for basketball. In order to do that, one must be able to stand up to scrutiny against many of the top at the position of all time. In this article, we look at 5 generational point guards and how they compare to Tyrese Haliburton early in their careers.

5. Can he shoot like Steph Curry?

Few would doubt that Steph Curry is a generational basketball player, yet alone, a generational point guard. Steph has revolutionized how the game is played and elevated the value of the 3-point shot and how teams across the league approach it. But how did Curry’s career start? How did he look in year three in comparison to Haliburton?

Curry Year Three: 14.7 points and 5.3 assists on 49% field goal percentage and 46% from deep.

Haliburton Year Three: 20.5 points and 10.3 assists on 48% field goal percentage and 43% from deep.

To be fair to Curry, he had yet to become the true 3 point phenomenon that we know today, but there was an inkling that the Warriors had something special.

When you compare the two players you quickly notice that Haliburton is much more focused on assists than Curry was early in his career. And in fact, the closest he has ever come to the assist numbers that Tyrese is putting up was 8.5 assists per game during the 13-14 season.

While Tyrese may never be the game changing guard that Curry has been, the comparison is not a far-fetched one.