As the 2024 Summer Olympics approach, several names are coming forward to make the final list. The roster may only contain four or five guards as it was in 2020. Those names included Jrue Holiday, Zach LaVine, Damian Lillard and Devin Booker. A Pacers guard participated in the FIFA World Cup last summer and also hopes to play in France.
Tyrese Haliburton will face tough competition on the court as some of these names look to earn a spot on Team USA’s roster. Some other players at the guard position he’s competing with are Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, De’Aaron Fox, and more. Thinking back to four years ago, here’s how the five guards on the 2020 USA team fared during the 2019-20 NBA season.
Holiday averaged 19.1 points and 6.7 assists per game during the 2019-20 NBA season. He averaged 1.3 points and 1 more assist the year before.
LaVine, who has been injured for most of this season, averaged 25.5 points per game four seasons ago. He was also reliable for 4.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game.
A year later, three-pointers (points, rebounds and assists) saw a slight increase. LaVine’s field goal, three-point, and free throw percentages also increased the following season.
Lillard, also currently in his 30s like Holliday, averaged 30.0 points and 8.0 assists in 2019-20. Bradley Beal retired due to COVID-19 that summer after averaging 30.5 points and 6.1 assists with the Wizards.
The name of the last guard on Team USA is Booker, who averaged 26.6 points per game in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. His best field goal percentage came in 2019-20 with an impressive 91.9%.
Last year, in his first full season with the Indiana Pacers (and as a starter), Haliburton averaged 20.7 points, 10.4 assists and shot 49% from the field. He is scoring 20.8 points per game this season with his assists increasing to 11.3 per game.
Haliburton also has a significantly lower turnover average in its games played. Averaging just 2.3 turnovers per game, the next closest is LaVine with 2.6 and Holiday with 2.7 in games played.
The Pacers guard is also only 24 years old. He’s younger than Young, Mitchell and Fox while also holding a slightly higher field goal percentage and assists per game average than those other three prospects.
Haliburton’s talents and ability to excel have already been demonstrated on three major platforms during the 2023-2024 NBA season. The Pacers point guard was a big reason Indiana earned a spot in the season-opening tournament.
In the first round against Boston, Haliburton produced 26 points while making ten of his 18 shots from the field. He also recorded 10 rebounds and 13 assists without a single turnover. That’s right, a triple-double against the best team in the league (record-wise).
In the next round, Haliburton scored 27 points on 11 of 19 field goals. He was an even distributor with 15 assists and still pulled down seven rebounds against Milwaukee, another Eastern Conference power.
Despite going winless in the Finals against the Lakers, Haliburton had 21 points and 11 assists with his first (and only) three turnovers in the season-long tournament bracket. The All-Star shined again elsewhere.
Haliburton wasn’t just part of the three-man group that won the skills competition (along with Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner). He showed he was ready for the biggest stages in the sport. In the 2024 All-Star Game, he led the East in victory with 32 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Perhaps the next stop where Haliburton will shine on such a big stage is Team USA’s opening game at this year’s Summer Olympics, or even the NBA playoffs. Even though he’s had a bit of trouble recently, he could finally get out of this bad situation. In short, there is a good chance that Haliburton will qualify for the final 12 (odds: 17:3 or 85%). It would be nice to see the Indiana Pacers have an Olympic representative.
