When Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton hears himself called "the face of the franchise" he still chuckles. But for the Pacers, that's how they see their young floor leader.
“We're gonna build our team around him,” Pacers GM Chad Buchanan told Basketball News. “We see him as hopefully being the next Reggie Miller. We had a Reggie Miller mural painted on a building in downtown Indianapolis, and I think our dream is that one day Tyrese will have (his own) up somewhere in downtown Indianapolis.”
Haliburton said he cried for nearly an hour when he was told about the trade sending him to Indiana from the Sacramento Kings. Then he connected with Pacers leadership who told him they planned to build the team around him, which helped him start to move forward.
Haliburton also said hearing from his peers around the NBA that they think the Kings made a mistake helped him move on from being traded. Haliburton added that he now feels at home, as he's a "Midwest kid", and the Pacers say their new star is “meshing together perfectly" with the Indiana community.
I gotta say, I agree with the Pacers. Haliburton is a definite keeper.
Since the trade, he averaged 17/4/10 + 2,4 stocks on 50/42/85 shooting splits.
He's my favorite to win the MIP award, and I'll go out on a limb and also say that he will:
- be an All-Star this coming season
- make multiple All-Star teams throughout his career
- make the Hall of Fame, barring some catastrophic injury
Yes, I love him THAT much as a player. I think he's fantastic.
I love his mental makeup. In his interviews you can see a sense of humbleness that some of the all-time greats have.
I love his skillset. I see some Penny Hardaway in his game. Some Brandon Roy. Some Grant Hill. I see some Rod Strickland as well.
The change of directions, the quick decisions with the ball. The "I don't look so skilled, yet I'm doing whatever I want on the court" feel. All of that, obviously, exacerbated with the "take it to the extremes" shooting skills we see in the current wave of players.
Give me more Haliburton for years to come, thank you very much, kind sir.
40%+ from 3 every season at every level in his career says otherwise.
