3 improving NBA sophomores to watch down the stretch
The arrival of March Madness has many NBA fans pondering the futures of the league's next draft class, and a stellar crop of first-year players this season has made for a great Rookie of the Year debate. But don't forget about the NBA's sophomores, particularly those who are quietly improving while bigger names like LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards hog the spotlight.
The three players below may not have the biggest impact on the remainder of this season (and they may not explode for 51 points like fellow freshman Saddiq Bey), but their recent development is certainly noteworthy, and an even bigger leap could soon come.
Tyrese Haliburton
Haliburton's a more recognizable name than the other two on this list, but not enough people talk about the 22-year-old in the same breath as Ball and Edwards. They should, because Haliburton continues to tease legitimate star potential.
Pundits and scouts have seemingly always undersold Haliburton's ceiling.
Despite being a hyperefficient floor general at Iowa State, his shot mechanics were picked apart. Steal and block rates are often the best indicators of translating collegiate success to the pros; Haliburton posted a higher steal rate as a sophomore than Fred VanVleet did as a senior at Wichita State and posted a freshman block rate that nearly matched that of Dwyane Wade, the best shot-blocking guard of all time. Yet this efficient lead guard with great size and defensive measurables somehow still fell to 12th in an underwhelming 2020 draft.
As a pro, Haliburton continued to do all the right things for the Kings, who rarely acquire or develop the right players. Naturally, Sacramento traded the budding star in only the second year of his rookie-scale contract; it was basketball malpractice, no matter how much better you think Domantas Sabonis is right now.
Now that he no longer has to share a backcourt with De'Aaron Fox in Sacramento, Haliburton is doing exactly what he did as a sophomore at Iowa State: increase his usage and his efficiency. In 14 games with the Pacers, Haliburton has averaged 18.5 points, 9.4 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and two steals in over 37 minutes per night.
At 6-foot-5 with a 6-8 wingspan, there just isn't much Haliburton can't do from either guard position. He's a smart - if conservative - playmaker with the size and vision to decipher and dissect most defenses. He can score from virtually anywhere and is a great decision-maker, with 50-40-90 potential as a shooter. He's also upped his driving game with the Pacers, and has gotten into the paint more often than any player in the league since the trade deadline.
His defensive impact doesn't always match the physical tools - though there are positive signs - and he's yet to suit up for a winner at the NBA level, but watch Haliburton play and you'll find that just about everything he does should translate to winning basketball. The Pacers have little to play for over the next month, but Haliburton is worth tuning in for.
Precious Achiuwa
Achiuwa's in-season development has to be tantalizing for a Raptors team already pushing the boundaries of long-and-small-ball.
After one productive season playing for Penny Hardaway at Memphis, Achiuwa arrived with the Miami Heat as an undersized big man with promising yet raw defensive skills and a limited offensive toolbox. When he landed in Toronto as part of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade, the 22-year-old was still very much a work in progress.
Achiuwa showed flashes of brilliance in random bursts through his first few months with the Raptors, but like many young players, mistakes and inconsistency outweighed those positive moments.
Since returning from All-Star Weekend, where he took part in the Rising Stars Game, Achiuwa's offensive development has been fast-tracked.
The most obvious area of improvement has been his shooting. Achiuwa has made 17 of 38 3-point attempts since the All-Star break. The big man's shooting has quietly been bubbling beneath the surface all season, particularly from the corners. After attempting just one 3-point attempt during his rookie campaign, Achiuwa is a 36% shooter from deep this year on 97 attempts.
In addition to spacing the floor from the corners, Achiuwa's awareness of when and where to cut or flash off the ball has improved. On the ball, he's even taking opponents off the dribble and successfully creating for himself at times, although there are still some head-scratching decisions and moments where Achiuwa's tunnel vision can derail a possession.
Still, these recent developments could be massive for Achiuwa and the Raptors, both long term as Toronto continues to build a positionless team of lengthy, do-it-all forwards (and Fred VanVleet), and short term as the playoff-bound Raptors desperately seek ways to score in the halfcourt.
Given how good Achiuwa is defensively, the importance of his development as a positive offensive contributor can't be overstated. The 6-foot-8 big man is forcing opponents to shoot more than 11 percentage points worse than average within 6 feet of the rim. He ranks 15th in defensive field-goal percentage among 234 players who've contested at least 100 shots at the rim this season and is more than capable of guarding in space, as he did against Marcus Morris to clinch a recent victory over the Clippers. Achiuwa's also an impactful defensive rebounder.
Keep an eye on the youngster's growing offensive game for as long as the surprising Raptors continue to play this season. A game-changing, two-way player may be emerging.
Aleksej Pokusevski
There might not be a more fascinating project in the league than Pokusevski, whose combination of size and raw skill can be astonishing.
Pokusevski often looked woefully out of place for the first year-and-a-half of his career. He was in the conversation for the league's worst player both last year and through the first couple months of this season. Then a G League stint in January seemed to change everything despite the fact the forward didn't even play that well for the Oklahoma City Blue.
Through the first 81 games of his NBA career, Pokusevski recorded a double-digit game score only eight times. In 17 games since returning to the Thunder's lineup on Feb. 5, he's done it nine times.
It's not just hot shooting and incremental improvements across the board, though that itself is encouraging for the 20-year-old. It's the poise and comfort with which Pokusevski has played over the last six weeks that bode well for his future after he previously looked like a deer in headlights.
In one frantic sequence late in a close loss to San Antonio this week, Pokusevski guarded and stopped Spurs All-Star guard Dejounte Murray on the perimeter, then leaked out and scored in transition to give OKC the lead with five seconds remaining.
Though the increase in his assists has been the most modest improvement on the stat sheet, Pokusevski's playmaking has been what pops off the screen. He is finding cutters on the baseline with no-look dimes, seeing shooters spotting up around him, and threading pocket passes that either he wouldn't have seen before or would've resulted in turnovers.
There are still plenty of giveaways, and there remains much room for improvement, but a 7-footer with a guard's skill set - who's younger than some college prospects - just made the leap from the worst player in the NBA to fringe rotation player overnight. That should thrill OKC, frighten rivals, and give you a reason to watch the tanking Thunder (in addition to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) down the stretch.
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's senior basketball writer.