Halliburton, the most outstanding key gentleman of this century?

On May 22, the Indiana Pacers struggled to survive for the third time with less than 10 seconds left in the game and two points behind. The result was just like before. Halliburton stepped forward and made a key shot, eventually leading the team to beat the Knicks 138-135 overtime at Madison Square Garden, winning the first victory in the Eastern Conference Finals.

, and it should be noted that standing opposite Halliburton, Jaylen Brunson, who just won the "key Mr." this season.

This game belongs to Halliburton, who is questioned and underrated. He was once rated as the most overrated player by his peers in the league. Now he has performed hardcore performances at critical moments time and time again, slapping all opponents who swear badly in the face.

So now the question arises: How did Halliburton perform at a critical moment in the game? What is his ranking among key players? Or, are we witnessing the strongest key gentleman of this century?

To answer this question, we refer to the effective shooting percentage at critical moments since the league began recording round data in the 2002-03 season.

The reason why this data is chosen instead of ordinary shooting percentage is mainly because the effective shooting percentage at critical moments can more accurately reflect the player's shooting value (the score weight of three-pointers is higher than two points).

Next, we screen out all players who shot 100 or more times at critical moments of the game (critical moments are defined as games with a score difference of less than 6 points in the fourth quarter of the game or the last 5 minutes of overtime). However, in order to avoid distortion of sample data, we add two restrictions:

First, at least 20 three-pointers to exclude inside players who only end in the penalty area but do not have the ability to score independently;

Second, the assist-and-turnover ratio is no less than 2:1, ensuring that the player has the ability to control the field at critical moments and can create effective mobile phone opportunities, rather than frequent rounds without ending shots.

Referring to Halliburton's career resume, in the regular season + playoffs, he made a total of 334 shots in 184 key moments, with an effective shooting percentage of 56.4% at critical moments, 54.3% higher than the league average.

And among the 123 players who meet the above conditions, Halliburton ranked eighth with 56.4%. From this perspective, he doesn't seem to be the key teacher at the top of the moment. However, let's first look at the people ahead of him:

Brent Barry (69.0%)

Michael Porter Jr. (63.5%)

Royce O'Neal (59.7%)

Alex Caruso (58.3%)

PJ-Washington (58.1%)

Austin Reeves (57.9%)

Derek White (57.4%)

Except for Brent Barry, the misinformed data monster, most of the other players are off-ball ending puzzles and have never been selected as the All-Star. At critical moments, players or rely on the system to get opportunities.

If you only look at the players selected for the All-Stars, Halliburton can still rank in the top five in the effective hit rate list at critical moments. What is particularly worth mentioning is his control ability. Halliburton's assist-turnover ratio at critical moments is as high as 3.86:1, which is the highest data among all players selected for the All-Star. In contrast, other All-Star players with assist-and-turnover ratios of ≥3 are Van Jordan, Ball, Van Exel and Gary Payton. Although these players have stable ball control, their shooting efficiency at critical moments is far inferior to Halliburton. The four players are only 40.7%, 45.1%, 38.7%, and 47.9%, respectively, which is a far cry from Halliburton's 56.4%.

In addition, there are some special data that deserve our attention:

, Lillard, known as the representative of the key gentleman, ranked only 53rd in this list, with a shooting efficiency of 47.2%, ranking 11th in the list of all-star players;

Pacers legend Reggie Miller ranked 67th with a shooting efficiency of 45.8%. However, due to the fact that the league has recorded round data since the 2002-03 season, Miller's statistics only cover the last three seasons of his career;

The key man Curry in the 2023-24 season had a shooting efficiency of 52.8%, but his personal assist and loss ratio was 1.46, which did not meet the selection criteria listed above;

As for the key man Jaylen Brunson this season, his shooting efficiency was 50.3% at the critical moment, and his personal assist and loss ratio was 2.47, ranking 32nd on the list.

combined with the above content, it is enough to see Halliburton's efficient performance at critical moments. And if we further narrow the scope and count only the limit critical moment of "the score difference in the last two minutes is within 4 points", Halliburton's performance will be even more eye-catching.

Under the premise of at least 75 shots, at least 15 three-point shots, and the personal assist-loss ratio is no less than 3, Halliburton's shooting percentage is 52.2% at the critical moment of 116 shots, ranking fourth among the 51 players who meet the criteria.

And in this special set of data, the person ranked first on the list unexpectedly gave Al Horford. For this panacea insider, we seem to have ignored his stability throughout his career. But Halliburton followed closely, and his personal assist-loss ratio at the critical moment was significantly higher than Horford.

Finally, for Halliburton, he may not be the most efficient person at critical moments, but when we look at the shooting efficiency, three-point ability, field control stability and finishing method, Halliburton is definitely the most all-round, stable and reliable key gentleman of this era.