OKC Thunder: Tyrese Haliburton responds to Gilgeous-Alexander comparison

Tyrese Haliburton reminds some of OKC Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander which he offered his insights on during his media interview

As part of the NBA Draft Combine process, prospects are interviewing with the media answering journalists’ questions. These sessions allow OKC Thunder and NBA fans as well pundits an opportunity to get a better feel for the prospect’s personalities and strengths.

As part of the first group Iowa State guard, Tyrese Haliburton was included. In this past season at Iowa State Haliburton averaged 15.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 2.5 steals in the 22 games he amassed.

The 6’5″ point guard is expected to be selected in the lottery range of the NBA Draft. While T.I. noted the size of Devon Dotson witnessed his slippage on the draft board Haliburton’s length is considered an asset but he’ll need to gain size (weight) once he hits the pros.

Tyrese Haliburton media session highlights

The leap Tyrese Haliburton made from his freshman to sophomore season was meteoric especially in terms of his intangibles. His rebounding, points, and assists all increased and while his shooting efficiency dropped slightly he still shot over 40 percent from deep attempting 5.6 triples per game.

The 20-year old who’ll turn 21 in February will offer plenty of upside as a lengthy guard which many teams are highly covetous of given the new era of positionless basketball.

The NBA official site features his full interview where he answered a series of questions from the media.

Hasn’t spoken to OKC Thunder

Although Haliburton hasn’t spoken with the OKC Thunder that doesn’t mean he won’t. At this point in his pre-draft process, he’s only interviewed with three teams. Throughout the course of the interview, Tyrese revealed those three clubs were the Knicks, Pistons, and Warriors.

As per Rylan Stiles, he noted he is compared frequently with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander but feels the comparison ends with them both being tall guards. In truth as Stiles points out, they do have a lot of similar assets and strengths, based on similar lankiness, frame, and capabilities. Specifically, Haliburton offered

Although Haliburton is a guard he was quick to point out he’s comfortable playing either guard position and considers himself a basketball player rather than a role-specific player.  Moreover, he intends to do whatever his drafting team requests of him.

Some of the big guys came out for this interview with Brian Windhorst asking if he knows where Tyler Herro’s confidence comes from. Windhorst asked this based on the fact the two grew up together as kids and Haliburton credited Herro’s great work ethic for the reason he’s so confident.

As for which NBA players Haliburton spends time watching or trying to emulate the youngster served up a bit of a surprising answer. He noted Magic Johnson and then explained much of that has to do with his father’s love of basketball which led to the youngster watching lots of 80s and 90s basketball.

As for the narrative, this 2020 Draft is a weak class, Haliburton felt it was a lazy casual comment and suggests revisiting the situation in a couple of years to have the conversation again.

Haliburton hinted he’s working on a lot of things that weren’t required from him with Iowa State though he’s also quick to note he was given the green-light with this past season. He also addressed comments from some stating his mechanics might be off and suggested they review the film to get their answers because he’s succeeded and the film doesn’t lie.

Strengths, pre-draft work:

Make shots, facilitate at a high level, and is a really good off-ball defender but feels he can improve as an on-ball defender.

The areas of his game he’s working on are finishing with both hands and scoring off the bounce. The latter especially in the pick and roll since he feels 80 percent of offense stems from pick and roll sets. The 20-year old noted he’s watched a ton of drop coverage stating he saw a ton of it during the playoffs. That led him to focus on how to address this type of coverage given he experienced more players hedging in college as opposed to drop coverage.

An interesting takeaway was the guard gained a ton of confidence with his inclusion on the American Under 20 team, that played in Greece and much of his confidence stemmed from that experience.

Film emerging as a key tool for younger generation

Something that has come up in many of these media sessions is how this class uses film. There is the typical usage of players who watch NBA games to learn more about the pros or to watch players with similar skill sets.

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The other major point, however, is how this generation is using film from a much younger age. Much like the Michael Jordan generation didn’t have to deal with social media like LeBron James generation has, it’s noteworthy how many of these youngsters are using film to analyze their own work and to spot where they can improve starting at a much younger age.

Haliburton offered one of the best responses on this in his interview (second last question: 33:55). He began watching film in late middle school, primarily as a basic principle of what shots were successful. Later in high school, film became a way to communicate with a coach to break down what he was seeing versus his coach. And that carried over into college.

Haliburton notes kids are getting into dissecting film at a much younger age and it’s something that allows players and coaches to be more transparent with each other. He also noted many of the arguments you see are often misunderstandings and when you have film handy (like many teams do now right on the sidelines) they are able to show you the example and make immediate fixes. It’s an insightful point and one I think we’ll be revisiting as more and more it becomes part of the growth process for prospects.

Considering the OKC Thunder has so many draft picks in the coming years the ability of prospects to dissect film will become more of a talking point moving into the future.