Everyone in the NBA knows how good Tyrese Haliburton is. He's a pass-first point guard who loves to get his teammates involved. His step-back threes are a real weapon and he can hit some deep threes too. While his three-point percentage has been down since his injury, he's finally starting to get his rhythm back.
Before his hamstring injury, Haliburton knew when to attack the defense instead of trying to find a teammate. He knew when he needed to start taking over the game by becoming a scoring threat. That has slowed down since he got hurt but also since the acquisition of Pascal Siakam.
It looks like Haliburton is almost all the way back from his injury. He has his lift back, his minutes restriction is gone, and he is playing at pace again. His shooting percentage is starting to creep back up to where he was pre-injury. He's shooting 44.5% in his last 7 games. Yet, there is one more thing he still needs to do more of.
The Pacers need Tyrese Haliburton to attack bigs more when they switch the pick-and-roll
When Haliburton was at his best before he got hurt, he was devastating on pick-and-roll switches. He would get by a big for an easy layup or take a quick step-back three in rhythm. He hasn't done a great job of that since he got hurt and it was noticeable against both Toronto and New Orleans.
Toronto switched all of the high ball screens at the top of the key. That matched up Haliburton with Jakob Poetl several times. Instead of taking Poetl to the rim and using his speed to get around him, Haliburton danced at the top of the key and was looking to pass it off instead of exploiting the mismatch.
The same thing happened when the Pacers were taking on the Pelicans. New Orleans would switch the screen and leave Zion on Haliburton. He decided to take more threes instead of attacking the lane. He shot it better against New Orleans so the decisions didn't look as bad, but he shot just 18% against the Raptors.
Indiana is at their best when Haliburton is a downhill threat too. He's adept at making floaters and bank shots when a shot blocker gets close and he's a master at putting spin on crazy layups that allow him to finish in traffic. They need more of that from him.
The Indiana Pacers go as far as Haliburton can take them, even with the Siakam pickup. He's almost back to being elite. He just has to get his confidence going to the rack back.