Indiana Pacers: Comparing Tyrese Haliburton to 5 generational guards

4. Can he run the Indiana Pacers offense the way John Stockton did with the Jazz?

When people think of the prototypical point guard, dishing the ball to team members and being a floor general, many people immediately think of John Stockton. The praise is well warranted as Stockton led many Jazz teams, along with Karl Malone, to great success throughout his career. But how does Halibuton stack up against Stockton?

Stockton Year Three: 7.9 points, 8.2 assists, and 2.2 steals on 49% field goal shooting.

Haliburton Year Three: 20.5 points, 10.3 assists, and 1.8 steals on 48% field goal percentage.

The number that jumps immediately off the page is the points per game, where Haliburton has a clear advantage. Haliburton is scoring at a much higher clip, but the efficiency of those shots are roughly the same as Stockton in year three. However, Haliburton is even keeping pace with the assist numbers of Stockton early in his career.

Of course, it was year four that Stockton’s assist numbers really took off and to keep pace with this all-time great Haliburton will have to continue to identify ways to create for his teammates. He may never reach the assist numbers of Stockton, but given his increased point totals, it may be a bit of a wash when it is all said and done.