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Putting Tyrese Haliburton's immaculate exception into perspective
🕑 Added 2025-03-26 00:09:40 +0000 UTCThis low turnover thing is kind of one-of-one, to quote Rick Carlisle
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
Few players maximize resources while minimizing waste quite like Tyrese Haliburton. In addition to making use of every inch of the court, whether horizontally, vertically, and yes, oftentimes even aerially, he also plays as though he doesn't have a second to spare. Midway through the first quarter of what became a 119-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, he took a quick peek over his shoulder as Myles Turner was corralling the rebound, scanning the floor for potential hit-ahead opportunities rather than staring down the outlet passer. In the blink of an eye, that glance was all that was required for him to transform into a quarterback, throwing the ball over the top of Minnesota's entire defense for the touchdown pass -- or rather, hockey assist.
He finished that game with 24 points, 11 assists, and only one turnover.
Eleven days ago, he dissected the defense in the opposite direction, beating the timing of Philadelphia's scram switch on the weak-side by casually tossing the ball from one corner to the other for a dunk with one hand as if this was a completely normal angle and in no way needed a new, let alone any, slant.
To put the absurdity of that pass into perspective, the entire NBA has only completed 26 passes this season from one corner to the other -- the majority of which have been executed as overhead passes with both hands, locating an already exposed target as opposed to targeting an anticipated exposure.
He finished that game with 14 points, 10 assists, and only one turnover. Over his last 11 games, he's recorded 11 straight points and assists double-doubles, averaging 21.5 points and 12.1 assists while putting forth a 50-40-90 effort, shooting 54.9 percent from the field, 47.4 percent from three, and 94.3 percent at the free throw line. During this streak, he's amassed 133 assists and only 12 turnovers.
"He's kind of 1-of-1 with this low turnover thing," Rick Carlisle told reporters of Haliburton following the win over Minnesota.
According to Stathead, there are 15 players in NBA history who have recorded streaks of 11-straight games with double-doubles in points and assists, with John Stockton (11), Magic Johnson (9), Chris Paul (2), Isiah Thomas (2), and Steve Nash (2) all accomplishing the feat multiple times in their respective careers, while also being joined by Kevin Porter, Kevin Johnson, Michael Jordan, Michael Adams, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, James Harden, Tiny Archibald, Oscar Robertson, and Haliburton. Among those names, no one has achieved those bench marks while committing fewer turnovers than Haliburton (12), with the previous leader being Kevin Porter's 25 in 1979.
Regardless of his gaudy assist numbers, which of course require the shot-making of another player and offer no distinction between rote passing reads and those which require advantage creation, the fact that Haliburton is barely turning the ball over even as he aims to play at turbo speed while slicing up the floor in every which way is "kind of 1-of-1" -- no matter how you (ahem) slice it.
After all, while he may be the sun, the moon, and the stars, as it pertains to jump-starting the offense for the Pacers, he isn't a particularly heliocentric option when it comes to holding onto the ball. Second Spectrum tracks touches and average touch time. When multiplying those two numbers together for Haliburton and dividing by the same product for the team as a whole, he's only had the ball 28.6 percent of the time within the Pacers' egalitarian offense, despite the fact that he ranks second in touches per game (94.1), trailing only perennial MVP candidate Nikola Jokic (104.6).
If that same process is repeated for every team's leader in touches per game, the proportion by which Haliburton has the ball for his team barely cracks the top-10, as can be seen below.
Trae Young: 42.5%
Jalen Brunson: 39.9%
Cade Cunningham: 38.6%
Damian Lillard: 35.6%
Tyrese Maxey: 35.1%
James Harden: 34.7%
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 33.0%
Dejounte Murray: 32.1%
LaMelo Ball: 31.7%
Tyrese Haliburton: 28.6%
As a team, the Pacers have the lowest average touch length in the NBA while averaging the second-most passes. The ball is constantly on the move, with Haliburton as the central non-centralized character. And yet, even while hanging onto the ball less often, he's somehow committed the fewest live-ball turnovers per 100 possessions of any of the above-listed names.
Cade Cunningham: 4.55
James Harden: 4.53
Trae Young: 4.50
Dejounte Murray: 3.24
Damian Lillard: 2.77
LaMelo Ball: 2.75
Jalen Brunson: 2.34
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 2.28
Tyrese Maxey: 1.94
Tyrese Haliburton: 1.47
And, here's the thing: That's just this season. He's currently averaging more passes than any guard in the NBA, with 75.2 per game. There are 13 players in Second Spectrum's 12-year database who have averaged at least 70.0 passes per game, minimum 500 total passes. Of those 13 players, which includes repeat performances from Nikola Jokic (X7), John Wall (X3), Rajon Rondo (X2), Ben Simmons (X2), Chris Paul (X2), Domantas Sabonis (X2), and Haliburton (X3), along with Ricky Rubio, Kemba Walker, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, and T.J. McConnell, no one has turned the ball over on a lower percentage of their pass attempts than Haliburton, at just 1.003 percent. Meanwhile, among that same group, his average completed pass distance of 21.160 feet ranks third, trailing only John Wall in 2015-16 (21.332) and himself last season (21.201).
As both his cross-court dart from corner-to-corner in Philadelphia and his full-court advance pass against Minnesota go to show, he keeps the ball safe in terms of valuing possession, despite the fact that he doesn't play it safe as a passer.
That matters, not only on offense, where the ball is (you know) required to score, but also on defense, where turning the ball over less and making more shots enables the Pacers to turn up the pressure, allowing 1.126 points per possession when they have at least one back-court defender present, compared to 1.161 when they have none. Put simply, when Haliburton is dropping dimes without turning the ball over, Indiana doesn't have to stop on a dime, abruptly hitting the brakes on an offense that ranks fifth in average time to cross half-court in order to suddenly change directions.
All of which is to say that, Haliburton's "low turnover thing" hasn't just been an immaculate exception when looking backward to the past, he's also looking the Pacers forward in the present, glancing here, there, and everywhere, as he often maximizes every inch and every second without giving way to giveaways in a way that few players, in currently being "kind of 1-of-1," ever have.
Comments
Joelvideo
Sometimes numbers don't tell the whole story, but.... sometimes they kinda do. This is a fantastic read.
Seth Paxton
Jesus CC, the work to assemble this info. Beast mode.
David Kang
Is it possible that his, um, unorthodox shooting form actually helps him pass more accurately?
Caitlin Cooper
Thanks, Jay!
Jay Rigdon
This is awesome, and a tremendous way of contextualizing how special he is as a player.
Caitlin Cooper
Thanks, Paul. I really appreciate it!
Paul Biondich
What a well done article. I am delighted to support this subscription. You deserve it. What your article reminds me of is the way that Tyrese is the "head of the snake" when it comes to the team's overall pace. It feels like the team is rounding into form on that front compared to the herky jerky feeling of a typical Pacers posession earlier this season. "...as though he doesn't have a second to spare" has a way of setting a standard across the team, IMO.
Kyle Taylor
I believe it, and I do think it's much more telling of how teams prefer to operate.
Caitlin Cooper
"pretty girls can guard, too" -- especially when they don't turn the ball over
Caitlin Cooper
That's so nice, thank you
Caitlin Cooper
I was hoping that joke would land haha
Caitlin Cooper
Thanks, Jess :)
Caitlin Cooper
It took a lot of work to calculate, but is very telling IMO of how teams prefer to operate.
Kyle Taylor
It felt like we went through a drought of those peek over the shoulder and launch it way ahead passes earlier this year. Happy to see they've returned! Tangentially, your method of calculating "usage" feels like the intuitive way a stat bearing that name should be calculated.
Jeff Hasser
Good research on that corner pass, didn't even think of it during the game because we are so spoiled by his passes. The full court pass was hard not to appreciate though.
Jess
Insightful and entertaining analysis from our 1 of 1 Pacers writer (as always)
Ian Brown
Lol at "as if this was a completely normal angle and in no way needed a new, let alone any, slant."
Rodney McLamb
Caitlyn, so glad you are in my basketball world - a true gem.
James T Sandberg
Best defense is a good offense, as we always say.
