NBA Blog: Two potential breakout stars ahead of the 2022-23 season

Even the youngest teams in the NBA have completed the roster ahead of the 2022-23 season and many young rebuilding teams are expected to have many breakout stars that showed some flashes during the past season.

The Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons are not expected to be NBA playoff bound teams however their fans have a lot to be excited despite building more for the future. Exciting rookies like Jaden Ivey in Detroit and Ben Mathurin in Indiana will likely receive starter minutes.

While other players like sophomore Cade Cunningham will try to build in their impressive rookie campaigns. However, in this piece, will focus on third-year players waiting to make the jump as one of the main future stars of the teams.

Tyrese Haliburton-Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers are certainly going young having all their veteran players on the trade block. They already trade away starting guard Malcolm Brogdon and they are expected to give the keys of the offense to Tyrese Haliburton.

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The second-year guard quietly established himself as one of the NBA’s best young sources of offense—for himself and others last season. After leaving Sacramento for Indiana, the guard showed he can run the offense smoothly.

The 6’5 (1.96 m) Haliburton averaged 17.5 points and 9.6 assists per game with 62.9 percent true shooting percentage in 26 NBA games with the Pacers. If he can sustain those number for 44 or 50 NBA games next season then Indiana might have found their star guard.

Tyrese Haliburton-Pacers
Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Haliburton has proved his reliability as a three-point shooter with a career 41.2 percent hit rate on 5.1 attempts per game, but playing alongside De Aaron Fox in Sacramento was making him more of a shooter than a playmaker.

He showed reliability in the small sample in Indiana as a pick-&-roll ball handler and amped up his FG% percentage to 50 percent in the 26-games span. If the Pacers have a respectable record until the All-Star break, the young point guard could be named an NBA All-Star.

The point guard could also put forth his case for the NBA Most Improved Player Award next season, especially if he can become an All-Star in the process. I think Haliburton could definitely be a candidate for the award after the flashes he showed last season.

Saddiq Bey-Detroit Pistons

Unlike Haliburton, I do not expect Saddiq Bey to be the conversation to become an All-Star in the upcoming season. However, he can be a breakout-star for the Detroit Pistons. Bey is considered a sharpshooter and started the 2021-22 season strong.

He scored more than 25 points in 14 occasions and played in all the Pistons’ 82 games as the starting forward of the team. He ended up averaging 16.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in his second year in the league.

While all the spotlight will be on Cade Cunningham and rookie guard Jaden Ivey, I believe Bey should be in the conversation for the Most Improved Player if he averages more than 18 points per contest next season.

Saddiq-Bey-Detroit-Pistons-50
Photo: Fernando Medina. Getty Images.

He has all the tools to do that with Cunningham and Ivey running plays from the guard position and attracting the defenses with their ability to attack the paints. The opportunities for Bey to shoot open threes will be increased.

In addition, his length at 6’7 (2.01 m) will help him take advantage of the late rotation or even shoot over his opponent. Bey showed some of his abilities on that front during a 51-point game vs Orlando last March.

The forward from Villanova put up a 17 of 27 shooting masterpiece, grabbed nine rebounds and dished four assists for a Detroit 134-120 win over the Orlando Magic. Bey will have plenty of opportunities to score next season and that makes him a potential breakout star.

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