Making the case for Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton to make the All-NBA team
By Ryan Stano
The Indiana Pacers are led by point guard Tyrese Haliburton. He is the undisputed leader of the team. He's a young superstar in the NBA and is the key to the future of the franchise. He will be an Olympian this Summer too. Early in the season, he was playing like an MVP candidate. He was scoring and assisting on almost every Pacers basket.
Haliburton was the main reason why the Pacers made it to the In-Season Tournament Finals. The pressure he put on teams was unbelievable. Most of that was due to his three-point shot. In the early part of the year, he was taking threes from two or three steps beyond the arc.
After he hurt his hamstring, his three-point shooting took a nosedive. His scoring and his shooting haven't quite been the same. Nonetheless, he's done enough to earn that super-max deal and be on one of the All-NBA teams. We make the case for him making Third-team All-NBA here.
Why Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton should make Third-team All-NBA
Haliburton finished the season averaging 20.1 points, 10.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.4 steals a game. He did all that on 47% shooting from the field and 36% from three. He also shot 85.5% from the free-throw line. Those numbers are solid enough.
His advanced stats tell an even better story for him. His net rating was 6.2, by far the highest in his career. His assist percentage led the entire league, coming in at 44.4%. His offensive rating was 122.4 and was the second-highest in the league. He did all of this with the fourth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league with 4.7.
Haliburton also led a team that hadn't made the playoffs in four seasons to the sixth seed in the East. That has to count for something. Is he a good defensive player? No, but he has his moments. He can get some opportunistic steals and blocks.
Next. Next story. The three most important players in the Pacers vs. Bucks series. dark
If Haliburton does indeed make one of the All-NBA teams, the Indiana Pacers will owe him an extra $54.1 million over the course of his contract. That's not an insignificant amount of money. He deserves it though. We'll have to see if the voters agree.