How Andrew Nembhard is drawing influence from Tyrese Haliburton

Even when Haliburton isn't playing, his influence is still on the floor.

By Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

Aside from playing on the same team, Andrew Nembhard and Tyrese Haliburton don't have a lot in common. Haliburton is thin, graceful, and dodging, evading defenders with his low gather, bounding strides, and discerning touch. Nembhard, by comparison, relies more so on angles and contact, stopping on a dime and pivoting while using a bevy of fakes to clear space and play for fadeaways. Put simply, where one skims the floor with the bounciness of a gazelle, the other nudges, backs up, and nudges again as though he's behind the wheel of a bumper car. And yet, despite the differences between them as movers, there's a growing similarity in their creativity as distributors, with the former taking on characteristics of the latter.

Of course, some of this was visible as early as Summer League. Even then, long before he had the opportunity to study alongside his All-Star teammate, Nembhard was canny, in and of himself, displaying a flair all his own for throwing cross-court kicks with velocity, especially when delivered with his off-hand. Still, for someone who tends to stay controlled while playing off two feet, it was certainly striking to see him maintain access to a bounce pass after planting to rise up with a purpose. 

Looks familiar, right? From the pass fake at the first level to forcing the defense to commit to him rather than committing himself to a pass, that has Haliburton's name written all over it, and is just one aspect of the franchise player's signature that has been scrawled across the court this season, even when he isn't playing. 

Take the most recent win over the Detroit Pistons, for example. With T.J. McConnell and Haliburton both sidelined, Nembhard looked more like the version of himself who produced against Portland and Golden State the last time both T.J. McConnell and Haliburton were sidelined, remaining steady at the controls while tallying nearly double his normal volume of touches. For the season, no one has assisted Isaiah Jackson more than Nembhard, who has connected with the springy big man 33 times overall, including 24 dimes directly at the rim. That much isn't new. He's a solid lob passer and is usually fairly quick to find pocket passes, but he generally does so while leading Jackson to the basket. On Saturday, he changed up the timing, faking finger roll layups for late lobs.

Guess who else does that? Why, yes, it's Haliburton, playing cat-and-mouse in a very similar manner with Jackson as a means of toying with drop coverage. 

Beyond making what seemed like a concerted effort to feed Jackson as a starter in his home state, further mastering that type of deception has the potential to make the game easier for Nembhard, who doesn't get to the rim often, only attempting 16 percent of his shots at the basket. Part of the problem stems from his lack of burst as a finisher, which can lead to him being overly selective, at times, stranding himself in the non-restricted area of the paint. In that regard, if the opposing big falls for this trick early, there might be a tendency to react to the lob, thereby, later on, making the actual finger roll more open (i.e. fake it, so you can take it). 

While not directly related to driving to the hoop, that type of in-game reaction can also be evident from the perimeter, as was the case against Detroit on Saturday. 

Over the last 25 games, Nembhard has only shot 25 percent from three on 3.8 attempts per game, but look at what happened on the next possession after he found nylon from deep. Unlike Marvin Bagley, rather than giving him space to wind up in the wake of a non-committal switch, Jalen Duren is playing him close. In fact, so close, that he actually closes on his step-back, allowing Nembhard to cut in front of the switch (i.e. fake it, so you don't have to take it). 

Just as a reminder, although executed in the opposite direction, that's been one of Haliburton's go-to hacks against switches this season. Leveraging the threat of his shot, he fakes the movement pattern of his side-step three to the right in order to entice the big to lunge toward him. Then, he beats the switch with movement, passing the ball to his nearest teammate to give-and-go, either resulting in a direct scoring opportunity or kick-starting multiple rounds of drive-and-kick with the rim protector caught behind the action.

By comparison, Nembhard doesn't get the pass-back but clearing to the ball-side corner with Duren trailing at the same time as Hield is sprinting from that same corner to the wing, effectively parts the waters for George Hill to knife to the rim. 

All of which is to say that, via Nembhard, Haliburton still managed to leave his stamp on the court, despite the fact that he was watching from the bench; and perhaps, with regard to Nembhard, because he was watching from the bench. 

To that point, over the eight games in which Nembhard has started at "point guard" this season, he's averaged 17.7 potential assists. For point of reference, Haliburton leads the league in that category with 19.9 per game. James Harden, who averages 17.4, ranks second. Mind you, some of that is opportunity, as the only other ball-handler in a few of those contests was either Trevelin Queen on a two-way contract or James Johnson. Still, the fewest number he recorded in any of those games was far from few (12.0), and he wasn't just loading up on low-hanging fruit. There were moments where he was sneaking the ball around the defense independent of actions that don't require much manipulation. Of course, there was also a reason why he was replaced in the starting lineup before Haliburton returned from injury. 

Some of it can probably be attributed to illness, given that he sat out a pair of games during that stretch. But he also struggled to find his shot, forcing the action during closing time against Atlanta and later getting forced out of the closing lineup in favor of Bennedict Mathurin in Milwaukee, as he got bottled up against switches on one end while being unable to bottle up Jrue Holiday on the other. 

As such, even when accounting for the disparity in quality of opponent, especially with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey not in uniform, what happened against the Pistons, as far as Nembhard's playmaking for others, was a step forward. Now, in showing growth while taking aspects from Haliburton's game, the question for the future should be whether his current limitations as a scorer can warrant siphoning some pick-and-roll possessions from Haliburton's artistry -- not only for the sake of lessening the star guard's burden, but also for the purpose of fully exploring the outskirts of his own.