Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton was handed the reins to the offense after being acquired from the Sacramento Kings last NBA season, and he has run away with the job. There were a lot of people that believed he had All-Star potential, and he is certainly living up to it in his first season as the main ball handler in Rick Carlisle’s offense.
On the season, Haliburton is averaging 19.9 points, a league-best 11.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 33.8 minutes per game. He is shooting an efficient 47.6 percent from the field, making 38 percent of his 3-point attempts and 85 percent from the charity stripe.
This is a career season in the making for the Iowa State product as he is no longer sharing the lead playmaker role with a ball-dominant player as he was with the Kings when he shared the backcourt with De’Aaron Fox. Going their separate ways is also benefiting Fox, who is having an All-Star-caliber season of his own.
When taking a look at Haliburton’s production this season, an interesting comparison was made by StatMuse. They compared one of the MVP seasons of Steve Nash to what Haliburton is accomplishing this season and the numbers may surprise some people. Haliburton is outperforming Nash across the board.
There is some context that needs to be used here as the league is much different now than it was when Nash was leading the Phoenix Suns.
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The Suns led the NBA in pace that season with a 95.8. That number would place Phoenix second to last this season, as only the Dallas Mavericks play at a slower pace with 95.1. The Pacers are fifth in pace this season at 101.7.
That makes a huge difference in production as the Phoenix Suns played what was considered a breakneck pace during the 2005-06 season but would be considered slow and methodical in the current landscape of the NBA.
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So, comparing players from different eras is certainly apples to oranges, but still interesting to notice as it just goes to show how much the league has evolved in such a short period of time.
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