Tyrese Haliburton is not the type of player who wins an MVP. While his past comparison, Steve Nash, did so twice, the modern NBA requires counting stats more than it does team success. While both are still important, the advent of analytics has had more of an effect on awards races than most would like to admit.
Nash led the Run and Gun Phoenix Suns to multiple top seeds and deep playoff runs in the early 2000s, but never managed to win a title. He always came up just a little short, even when he played through a broken nose after getting trucked into the scorer's table.
Surely, Nash would rather have a championship than either of his MVPs. Surely, Haliburton would too.
Still, maybe Tyrese Haliburton can somehow pull off both.
That may seem insane for a player who is likely not a top-10 player in the NBA at this moment in time, is returning from a full year away from the sport after rehabbing his torn Achilles tendon, and who will unfortunately not get the numbers that he will need to reach those conversations, but he is certainly optimistic about what he could pull off this year.
The proverbial tortoise and the hare
If the Indiana Pacers are the top seed in the East, playing dominant basketball and racking up records, there is a chance that NBA MVP voters look at the record and simply choose the team's best player. That was how Donovan Mitchell got MVP votes in the past, and it was how Nash's MVPs came to be.
Over the past few years, the dominance of Shay Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic has made it seem like you need all the points, rebounds, and assists to have a case that can be taken seriously. Voters have justified this behavior as well, but wouldn't it be wonderful to return to what the game once was?
If the Pacers can just manage to win 65-odd games, history says that their best player will get a considerable amount of consideration. Now the Denver Nuggets have built a roster so woefully terrible around their best player that he will have the best on-off numbers. SGA will also likely be the top scorer with the ecosystem the OKC Thunder have built around him.
That makes any real challenge beyond those two seem impossible, but the NBA's dumbest rule has created a pathway for a sleeper option to quickly take over an award race.
If either of those players falls under the 65-game rule, it could open the floodgates to an unexpected player earning the league's biggest honor.
If Cade Cunningham can make MVP conversations on the Detroit Pistons by simply outlasting all the other candidates, playing enough games and creating adequate on court success, there is no reason that Tyrese Haliburton can't do the same.
Reminder: the Pacers have never had an MVP in franchise history. Wouldn't it be cool to see?
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