Tyrese Haliburton has led the Indiana Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row. At the beginning of the Playoffs, an anonymous NBA player survey by The Athletic showed that Tyrese Haliburton got the highest votes for being the most overrated player in the NBA.
Now, weeks after this media narrative, the No. 1 pick frontrunner Cooper Flagg and NCAA champion Walter Clayton Jr. both seem to disagree with those NBA players. And rather, they believe the polar opposite of that, Haliburton, is the most underrated player in the NBA.
When asked who he feels is the most underrated player in the NBA, Flagg said, “I would say Tyrese Haliburton, because people hate him and call him overrated all the time and say he’s not that good. But he’s such a good basketball player.”
“Everybody call him overrated, I say Hali(burton)”, said Clayton Jr. when he was asked the same question. The new generation seems to believe Haliburton does not get his flowers.
Is Tyrese Haliburton Underrated?
While Tyrese Haliburton gets the individual recognition, his impact on the league is downplayed simply because he does not play for a big-market team. Rather, he plays for a team that has never won an NBA championship since the 1976 merger, the Pacers. Therefore, it may seem that he is not as popular as he deserves to be.
When the Pacers traded Domantas Sabonis for Haliburton, NBA fans did not realize that the franchise had found a new face. Moreover, that trade likely helped him build a chip on his shoulder and use it to fuel his leap to an All-Star caliber player. In my opinion, Tyrese Haliburton is still one of the most underrated players in the league right now.
Cooper Flagg And Walter Clayton Jr.’s Future In The NBA Draft
Cooper Flagg was all over the news after the Dallas Mavericks secured the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery yesterday with a 1.8% chance to do so. He is likely the lock pick for the No. 1 position in the Draft unless Nico Harrison and the Mavericks decide to invest in Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey instead (unlikely but the only other possibility beyond drafting Flagg). Flagg is head and shoulders above all the other prospects in this draft class.
Walter Clayton Jr, coming off a national championship run with the Gators, also declared for the draft this season. He was arguably the best player on the Gators’ roster and led them to the March Madness Final. While he struggled in most of the Final, he showed up in the clutch moment to help Florida steal the game from Houston in the final moments of the game.
While most sources project he would be a first-round pick in the draft, some even go as far as to say he will be a lottery pick. In my opinion, he is a first-round pick for sure, but there are several better players in the draft class. Therefore, it seems a bit too far-fetched to conclude that he is a definite lottery pick.
