Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers
The facts: The Indiana Pacers have a -5.2 net rating with Tyrese Haliburton on the floor
The case for Tyrese Haliburton: After making a somewhat surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the Indiana Pacers were viewed by many across the league as a potential dark horse contender in the Eastern Conference. However, the Pacers have struggled to start the season and now much of that belief has been quieted down. A big part of the team's overall struggles has fallen on the shoulders of Tyrese Haliburton who is off to one of the worst starts of his short career.
But even with the struggles of Haliburton to begin the season, he takes all the blame considering the team needs him to be special for the Pacers to stick out. We've seen what the Pacers are going to look like when Haliburton doesn't play at a superstar level. They're average, at best. But when Haliburton is playing like a superstar, the Pacers are much more dangerous and very much a threat to make a deep playoff run - as they did last season. In theory, the Pacers need Haliburton to fight through the struggles, which could be easier said than done. All that said, Haliburton's struggles are startling to begin the year.
The case against Tyrese Haliburton: I don't want to be too knee-jerk but what if this is not just a slow start to the season anymore? What if there's something schematically or a lingering injury that has hurt Haliburton's ability to be an efficient offensive player? What if, for the foreseeable future, this is the new Haliburton? If that were to be the case, the argument could easily be made that he's certainly holding the Pacers back. Of course, the problem is, there are not easy alternative resolutions for Indiana.
For a struggling team overall, the hope is that they can recover or improve, at least slightly, on the defensive end of the floor throughout the season. More than anything, that has been at the center of the team's struggles as they continue to hover under .500. Is that all on Haliburton's shoulders? No. But when he's not helping the team play at an absurd offensive level, the team can't afford to get by with playing below average this season. Eventually, if the Pacers are going to rebound this year, something has to change on one of those two fronts.