Tyrese Haliburton is quickly becoming one of the best floor generals in the NBA. He’s made great improvements to his game ever since being traded to the Indiana Pacers. He’s showing the world why he was worth trading an all-star in Sabonis for. We’re going to take a deep look at the analytics to see why Haliburton is one of the best point guards right now.
Every year in his career, we’ve seen Haliburton’s usage rate increase:
Year 1 (Kings): 19.6% (41st percentile)
Year 2 (Kings): 21.6% (65th percentile)
Year 2 (Pacers): 23.7% (73rd percentile)
Year 3 (Pacers): 29.0% (92nd percentile)
As we can see, the Pacers are making sure that the ball is in Haliburton’s hands–and rightfully so. He didn’t get the touches in Sacramento because he was playing alongside another ball-dominant guard in De’Aaron Fox. Now, Haliburton has been given the keys and is the pillar of the Pacers rebuild.
Despite needing the ball in his hands, Haliburton is a pass-first player. He has the highest Ast:Usg in the NBA at 1.56. For those that don’t know, Ast:Usg is the ratio of assist rate to usage rate. In other words, how often did a player get an assist given how much they have the ball in their hands. Furthermore, he leads the league in Ast% at 45.2%, which calculates the percentage of his teammates’ shots that he assisted on. He’s also slightly above average in turnover percentage, which is good considering how much he has the ball in his hands and how many difficult passes he makes.
When Haliburton is on the court, everybody plays better. The team averages +9.4 points per 100 poss. when he’s out there, which puts him in the 96th percentile. His teammates also shoot much more efficiently when he’s on the court. They average a +6.9% increase in eFG%, putting him in the 99th percentile for this stat. To top it off, he adds an expected 15(!) wins to the team if he plays all 82 games.
While the hallmark of Haliburton’s game is his passing, his shooting is no joke. He has been a very efficient shooter throughout his career, and we’ve seen him expand his game to cater to outside shooting. He went from taking 37% of all his shots from three to now taking 45%. Continually, he has shot over 40% from three each season (41% this season). Most of his threes come from the right wing or the top of the key.
While he is a good shooter, he still prefers to drive to the goal in order to finish around the rim or to kick it out to an open shooter. He doesn’t like taking many midranges, but isn’t afraid to break out his floater game. Despite not taking many middies, he’s still above average in efficiency for midranges. He’s also very solid at the line. He’s shooting 86% from the free throw line this season. Moreover, he ranks in the 88th percentile in And1%, proving that he can finish through contact.
Defensively, he hasn’t been a world beater, but can definitely hold his own. He’s currently averaging 1.7 steals/game and 0.5 blocks/game. While these stats don’t look half bad, he’s not much of a ball stopper. But, not many players on this Pacers roster are doing a good job at stopping the ball. As a team, they give up the 5th most points in the NBA.
It’s clear that Tyrese Haliburton is a great player. He’s going to be playing in the NBA at a high-level for a long time because of his playstyle. He doesn’t rely on speed, rather he uses his high basketball IQ and shooting ability to carry his team to victory. He made his first all-star game this year, and it definitely won’t be his last. He’s given Pacers fans a lot to be excited about.
Comments