Pacers News: Tyrese Haliburton Finally Reveals Main Reason Behind Slow Start

The beginning of the 2024-25 NBA Season was a rough one for point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
After helping lead the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals last season and winning a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics, expectations were high for Haliburton. Unfortunately, he fells short of them.
In his second game, Haliburton went scoreless while only recording five assists and a rebound, truly terrible numbers for someone who led the NBA in assists a year ago.
In the first 20 games of the season, Haliburton averaged 17.5 points, 8.7 assists, and 3.5 total rebounds. This is far off from last season's average where he had 20.1 points, 10.9 assists, and 3.9 total rebounds per game.
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Many fans and experts were confused by this change, but it seems that there are explanations for the shift, per Jared Weiss and Sam Amick of The Athletic.
Haliburton himself pointed to the onslaught of negativity coming from the internet, noting that he used to read negative posts for fuel, but they have since gotten to him.
“I got too caught up in outside noise and allowing myself to think such negative thoughts about myself internally,” Haliburton said. “It was the first time in my life that I had real self-doubt behind everything I was doing. … I feel like my personal struggles were leading to the team’s struggles."
“A lot of our games early, that we were right there to win, I just wasn’t playing my best basketball and I think that was taking away from us winning games.”
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While the mental distractions were there, there were also physical speed bumps preventing Haliburton from performing to his full potential.
“He rushed back early last year to make the All-NBA 65-game rule and he was never fully healthy,” Haliburton's skills trainer Drew Hanlen said. “Then at the Olympics, he re-aggravated it. So after the Olympics, he couldn’t work out and had to let it heal. So he worked out zero times the entire summer.”
Despite these setbacks, Haliburton has seemingly gotten back on track and has begun to return to his old self.
In the last 10 games, Haliburton has averaged 18.9 points, 9.7 assists, 4.5 total rebounds, and one steal. This includes a game against the Miami Heat where he recorded 33 points, 15 assists, five total rebounds, two steals, and a block.
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