{"id":48948,"date":"2022-12-20T13:13:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T18:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=48948"},"modified":"2022-12-20T14:31:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T19:31:24","slug":"former-nba-all-star-calls-pacers-guard-a-wannabe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/12\/20\/former-nba-all-star-calls-pacers-guard-a-wannabe\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA All-Star Calls Pacers Guard a \u2018Wannabe\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Former Minnesota Timberwolve and NBA All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/szczewa02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Wally Szczerbiak<\/strong> <\/a>called Indiana Pacers guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/halibty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tyrese Haliburton<\/strong><\/a> a \u201cWannabe all-star\u201d in a post-game breakdown after last night&#8217;s game between the New York Knicks and Pacers. This article will review Szczerbiak\u2019s analysis and ask ourselves, is Tyrese Haliburton an All-Star?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Former NBA All-Star Calls Pacers Guard a \u2018Wannabe\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>What Did Wally Say?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following a hard-fought, 109-106 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/11\/30\/knicks-quarterly-report-card\/\" target=\"_self\">Knicks<\/a> victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/10\/02\/indiana-pacers-2022-23-season-preview\/\" target=\"_self\">Pacers,<\/a> Knicks analyst and former sixth overall pick Wally Szczerbiak provided commentary over the game\u2019s highlights. At one point in the broadcast, Szczerbiak referred to Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton as a \u201cWannabe, fake All-Star.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For full context, Szczerbiak was commenting on Haliburton\u2019s stepback three-point attempt with 14 seconds remaining in the game. The ten-year veteran turned analyst would say, \u201cMr. supposed wannabe, fake All-Star, with the big miss there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLast chance, down three for the wannabe All-Star. Let me keep it that way.\u201d Szczerbiak continued as the highlights ended. \u201cHe\u2019s in his second year. He\u2019s a very good player. He\u2019s not going to make the All-Star team. A guy like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/randlju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Julius Randle<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brunsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Jalen Brunson<\/strong><\/a> will make it over Tyrese Haliburton, and tonight we saw why.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Wally Szczerbiak going in on Tyrese Haliburton on the Knicks postgame show \ud83d\ude02 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QRJxJ3QuPN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/QRJxJ3QuPN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kevin D. Water Law (@docKev_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/docKev_\/status\/1604705135200018439?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Honest Criticism or Knicks Propoganda?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we dive in, it should be noted that Haliburton is in the third year of his career, as was Szczerbiak in his lone NBA All-Star season. In that 2001-02 season, the former Miami Redhawk averaged 18.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 0.8 steals, and 2.2 turnovers per game. Compare that to Haliburton\u2019s current third-year statistics, averaging 19.5 points, 10.7 assists, four rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 2.7 turnovers per game. On top of the double-double, Haliburton is putting up those numbers despite playing five fewer minutes per game on average. It seems reasonable that if Szczerbiak could make an All-Star team with his stat line, Haliburton surely cannot be a fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s possible that this is merely Szczerbiak leaning into an old rivalry in an attempt to go viral. If that\u2019s the case, it seems to have worked. The clip of the former forward\u2019s comments is being posted on Twitter and YouTube, with many questioning the need for Szczerbiak\u2019s sharp take.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Haliburton vs. Brunson: Who&#8217;s an NBA All-Star?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looking into Szczerbiak\u2019s argument, he mentions two Knicks specifically as players that will get selected ahead of Haliburton. Those players are Julius Randle and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/06\/30\/knicks-cleared-cap-space-for-jalen-brunson\/\" target=\"_self\">Jalen Brunson.<\/a> Randle is a difficult comparison since he is a front-court player, not a point guard. He is averaging nearly a double-double himself, and at this point, one can also argue for his spot on the NBA All-Star squad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s look at Brunson since this is a better comparison for Haliburton. Brunson is currently averaging 20.8 points, 6.2 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 2.1 turnovers per game in roughly 32 minutes of action. Haliburton is beating Brunson in rebounds, steals, and assists per game. The turnover rate is nearly identical but leans in Brunson\u2019s favor slightly. He is also averaging over one point more per game than Haliburton. It\u2019s difficult to call Brunson the front-runner based on these stats. Perhaps the shooting splits can shed more light.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Tyrese Haliburton in his third NBA season so far:<\/p>\n<p>19.5 PPG<br \/>\n10.7 APG (leads NBA)<br \/>\n4.0 RPG<br \/>\n1.7 SPG<\/p>\n<p>All-Star voting opens tomorrow.\ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Xq2gaPIOu9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Xq2gaPIOu9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pacers\/status\/1604935601068703744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haliburton is shooting 47% from the floor on 15 attempts per game. He is averaging seven three-point attempts per contest and connects on 38.5 %of those. Haliburton also shoots 54.9% on two-point shots and 87.6% from the charity stripe. Compare this to Brunson\u2019s 46.9% on 15.8 field goal attempts per game. He is hitting 37.3% of his 4.2 three-pointers per game. Brunson is also shooting 50.4% on two-pointers and 89.3% on free throws.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Last Word on Haliburton<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The point of the previous exercise was merely to point out that claiming Brunson is far and away a better point guard than Haliburton right now is untrue. Both are great players, and nothing should be taken from either. That\u2019s why it was so disappointing to see a former player calling a rising star a \u2018supposed, wannabe, fake All-Star.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At least the next Pacers-Knicks game will be must-watch television. NBA All-Star voting begins this week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Former Minnesota Timberwolve and NBA All-Star Wally Szczerbiak called Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton a \u201cWannabe all-star\u201d in a post-game breakdown after last night&#8217;s game between the New York Knicks and Pacers. This article will review Szczerbiak\u2019s analysis and ask ourselves, is Tyrese Haliburton an All-Star? Former NBA All-Star Calls Pacers Guard a \u2018Wannabe\u2019 What [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3815,"featured_media":48949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,11,12],"tags":[1417,510,2607],"class_list":["post-48948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-pacers","category-knicks","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-julius-randle","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"modified_by":"Kevin Nivek","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}