Until very, very recently, league scouts were apparently skeptical about two-time All-NBA Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton’s upside.
In fairness, Haliburton’s NBA colleagues felt similarly.
The 6-foot-5 Iowa State product was voted the league’s most overrated player in a 90-player poll conducted by Sam Amick and Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
It should be noted, the polls were conducted prior to the end of the 2024-25 regular season.
After getting limited burn for Team USA’s Olympic gold medal-winning men’s basketball squad last summer, Haliburton struggled throughout the first several months of the season. Pacers power forward Pascal Siakam, not Haliburton, became the club’s lone representative at the 2025 All-Star game.
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Now, with Indiana going on a dominant playoff run, the best since the 25-year-old Haliburton was three months old, all the doubters have effectively been silenced.
Haliburton has emerged as the Pacers’ clear best player, even if he has embraced an egalitarian approach as a pass-first point guard.
Per Tim Bontemps of ESPN, a Western Conference scout admitted that he was stunned by Haliburton’s evolution this postseason.
“(Haliburton is) throwing it ahead, playing out of dribble handoffs, running pick-and-rolls, so he gets everyone involved,” the scout said. “So (Aaron) Nesmith is throwing himself into defense because he knows he’s going to get touches and shots.”
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Indiana has gone 11-3 through the playoffs so far, and currently leads the higher-seeded New York Knicks, 3-1, in the two clubs’ ongoing Eastern Conference Finals series.
In the playoffs, Haliburton has been averaging 19.4 points on .467/.336/.800 shooting splits, 9.8 assists (against just 1.9 turnovers), 5.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 0.6 blocks a night.
“I didn’t think (Haliburton) had this jump in him,” the West scout added. “He’s shown so much more just because he makes his teammates better. Those guys have all been put in positions to succeed. All these guys are the best versions of themselves now because they have been instilled with confidence and optimized.”
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