Draymond Green Compares Tyrese Haliburton’s Ball Handling Skills With Elites Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving

Garima Ranawat

Last updated: June 2, 2025

3 min read

Tyrese Haliburton draws praise from Draymond Green.

Image Credit: D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green drew a comparison between Indiana Pacers rising star Tyrese Haliburton’s ball-handling skills with those of Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving. Notably, Haliburton played a key role in guiding the Pacers to their first NBA Finals in 25 years, as they beat the Knicks 4-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals. However, even after displaying exceptional performance, Haliburton fell short to Pascal Siakam as the latter won the Conference Finals MVP.

Before the completion of the series, the Warriors veteran heaped praise on Haliburton’s skills, especially his ball handling. Speaking on his show, Green said that his opponents hesitate to apply pressure on the Pacers’ star due to his dribbling ability. According to Green, “They give him a lot of space, and his shot takes some time, but the reason they don’t pressure him is because his handle is very underrated.”

"They give Haliburton so much space like they don’t realize he’s surgical with it… His handle is very underrated and sneaky."@Money23Green x @BaronDavis on how Tyrese Haliburton’s game is different 🎯 pic.twitter.com/UrfvOZUJHP
— The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis (@DraymondShow) June 1, 2025

Comparing his skills with those of Curry and Irving, the 35-year-old said, “Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving, their ball handling starts when it appears to you that they’ve lost the basketball. Hali got some of that, but also, if he bap bap you, he’s 6’7. With his stride, he’s gone. It’s very interesting to watch, looking at it on TV, because it doesn’t appear that his handle is like that.”

“Giannis Is One of the Greatest Players of This Era”- Draymond Green on Milwaukee Bucks’ Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo

The four-time NBA champion heaped praise on Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, while suggesting that he shouldn’t be called a power forward. Green opined that the Greek Freak has played positionless basketball. Notably, Antetokounmpo joined the Association in 2013 as a small forward, and in the second year, he shifted to shooting guard and in the third year, he was listed as a point guard.

Highlighting all these factors, Green said that Antetokounmpo is a unicorn, who doesn’t fit into a box. He said, “Giannis has played in an era where it kind of became positionless basketball. And I don’t necessarily quite think that Giannis is a power forward and has been throughout this whole becoming of Giannis.”

He added, “Giannis is one of the greatest players of this era, and the game was kind of positionless. What made people start calling Giannis a power forward is because you had to start putting power forwards and centers on Giannis.”

Notably, in the 2024-25 season, the 30-year-old finished with an average of 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per contest. The two-time MVP was one of the MVP finalists in the 2025 season, and averaged 37.6 points, 15.4 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game.

Draymond Green

Tyrese Haliburton

Garima Ranawat

Garima is a sports writer with around two years of experience in Indian sports and a newfound interest in the NBA. Inspired by the leadership of cricketing legend MS Dhoni, she wishes to bring in newer perspectives to the NBA fanatics with her writing.