For about half of last season, Tyrese Haliburton was the best point guard in the world. If passing and shooting are the two most important skills for a guard, Haliburton was historically great at both, averaging 24.3 points and 12.7 assists per game with a 63.6 percent True Shooting over the first 32 games of the year. Earlier in his career, Haliburton struggled to impose his particular style and sensibility; last fall, he was magnetic enough to force everyone to move at his tempo. With Haliburton at the ones and twos, the Pacers were the highest-scoring team of the last 40 years, pouring in 123.3 points per game.
And then, for the other half of it, he played like a taller Jose Calderon. After injuring his hamstring in January, Haliburton never recaptured his previous brilliance. Whereas he controlled the rhythm of games earlier in the season, post-injury, Haliburton could merely keep time; he responded to the defense, rather than forcing the defense to respond to him.
With Pascal Siakam arriving in mid-January, Haliburton slipped into a new role as a game manager. In this new capacity, Haliburton was diminished: scoring and assists went down while turnovers ticked up; he took fewer shots and missed more of them. From January 30th through the end of the season, Haliburton averaged just 16.6 points and 9.3 assists per game and his True Shooting dropped to a pedestrian 57.2 percent. More damning, he shot 71 free throws after the All-Star Break, drawing fewer fouls in two and a half months than Joel Embiid does in a particularly floppy week.
Despite Haliburton’s struggles, though, the Pacers’ offense never broke stride. Even as Haliburton limped through the playoffs, Indiana put up 121.3 points per 100 possessions during their surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals. In doing so, they played unlike any other team in the league, leaning on a quick-strike, decentralized offense. Across their 17 postseason games, the Pacers averaged the most points in transition and boasted seven players who chipped in more than 10 points per game.
In this context, Haliburton’s individual statistics are almost immaterial—he’s not so much a bucket getter as he is a vessel for buckets. When Haliburton is on the court, he practically guarantees the Pacers will put up points, regardless of who ends up scoring them.
With the Pacers brining back more or less the same roster from last year, they have the potential to once again sneak up on their supposed Eastern Conference betters. While last year’s playoff success can be somewhat chalked up to a favorable bracket, the Pacers are, evidently, not a total fluke—bad teams, after all, don’t come within four games of the Finals.
Still, to a degree, the Pacers are held back by the exact same forces that make them such a dangerous team to begin with. Namely, Haliburton’s unique strengths animate their elite offense, yet his quirks present some limitations.
When it comes to the traditional duties of an elite guard, he’s weirdly deficient at harnessing the same creative genius for himself that he does for others. An upright, ordinary ball handler, Haliburton can’t wiggle his way into the heart of the defense without a screen and his wonky, shoulder-heavy jumper makes it hard for him to seize upon scoring opportunities in the mid-range. He plays in straight lines, expertly—if somewhat artlessly—moving the ball from point A to point B. For the Pacers’ offense, Haliburton provides the seasoning—his genius playmaking turns rote workaday cuts into wide-open shots; everything is better because of him. But you can’t make a meal entirely out of paprika.
During the playoffs, Haliburton played with a startling passivity, his solid stats (18.7 points and 8.2 assists per game) masking a fundamental toothlessness. Allegedly hampered by his strained hamstring from the winter, he was relegated to the perimeter since he couldn’t breach the first line of defense. Over his 15 postseason games, his .093 free throw rate evidenced his inability to put defenses in compromising positions off the dribble. Accordingly, more than 60 percent of his shots came from deep and nearly 60 percent of those were assisted.
For the Pacers to build on their Eastern Conference Finals appearance, Haliburton needs to be assertive. When Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Milwaukee are all led by superlative individual scorers, Indiana can’t merely coast on Haliburton’s talent to foster fun and positive vibes: players don’t get lavished with supermax contracts because they help Obi Toppin rediscover his inner child. Haliburton doesn’t necessarily have to go band for band with Jalen Brunson or Jayson Tatum, but the best player on a contender can’t be deferential to Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard in big moments.
In this sense, Haliburton has a much smaller margin for error than his All-NBA contemporaries. Since Haliburton isn’t an explosive athlete, his game requires a delicate balance. In order to maximize his passing, Haliburton must also be a threatening scorer. At his worst, Haliburton can be overly obsessed with the aesthetics of making the right play to the point that it interferes with actually making the right play. He’s a great shooter with a fast release, but he lets defenses off the hook by not hunting for his shot more aggressively. By being such a willing passer, he paradoxically becomes a worse playmaker. For Indiana to capitalize on their roster’s collective goodness, Haliburton will have to embrace his individual greatness.
More from our The Realest Series
• Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics
• Jaylen Williams and the Oklahoma City Thunder
• Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers
• Julius Randle and the New York Knicks
• Michael Porter Jr. and the Denver Nuggets
• Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks
• Rob Dillingham and the Minnesota Timberwolves
• Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks
• Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns
• Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors
• D'Angelo Russell and the Los Angeles Lakers
• Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies
• Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat
• Evan Mobley and the Cleveland Cavaliers
• Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic
• Brandon Ingram and the New Orleans Pelicans