Which makes the best playmaker left in the playoffs something of a curiosity. Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers’ electric point guard, absolutely hates having the ball in his hands.

The Pacers have made a surprise run to the brink of the NBA Finals, taking a 3-1 lead over the Knicks in the conference finals. Haliburton led the way on Tuesday night with a triple-double, logging 32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists—and not a single turnover. He throws every sort of pass you can imagine, slinging no-look lasers to every corner of the court.

In fact, there’s just one thing he prefers not to do with the basketball. Hold on to it himself.

“Being the point guard is like being the mom,” Haliburton says. “Your job is to take care of everybody.”

Tyrese Haliburton passes the ball over Knicks forward Mikal Bridges during Game 4 on Tuesday night. Photo: PHOTO: AJ Mast/Associated Press

The NBA player-tracking system keeps tabs on exactly how long players keep hold of the ball once they have it—and the names at the top of the list could form an All-Star roster. There’s newly crowned MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and 16-year veteran James Harden. Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson held the ball more than anyone this season, keeping it for 6.1 seconds whenever he touched it.

Haliburton takes the opposite tack. Over the regular season, he held the ball for just 3.7 seconds. That’s less than several other All-Star point guards. It’s less than both LeBron James and his son Bronny. It’s less, in fact, than 136 other players in the NBA.

Which is an oddity because, alongside everything else, Haliburton is plenty good at scoring himself. In Game 1, he hit the shot of the playoffs, a high-bouncing jumper that tied the Knicks and propelled the Pacers to an overtime win.

But by getting the ball out of his hands, Haliburton turns into something even more valuable than a high-volume scorer. He is the engine of one of the fastest and most entertaining offenses in the entire NBA.

“I don’t have the answer,” Indiana guard Ben Sheppard said, of how a Haliburton pass makes its way to his hands. “He just sees everything. He’s got eyes in the back of his head.”

A player who holds the ball—no matter how great a scorer—becomes predictable, letting defenses prepare themselves for expected angles of attack. The Pacers, on the other hand, can attack from any angle. They have thrown more than 323 passes a night during the playoffs, by far the most in the NBA.

Knicks guard Jalen Brunson held the ball for 6.1 seconds on average, longer than anyone else in the NBA this season. Photo: PHOTO: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Not coincidentally, they race up and down the floor for a mind-boggling 117.6 points per game. And their ability to strike quickly has turned into a habit of pulling off unbelievable comebacks. Three times this postseason, the Pacers have climbed out of a seven-point deficit in the final minute of regulation to miraculously flip defeat into victory.

“In the age of Generation Z,” says Pacers coach Rick Carlisle of Haliburton’s pass-first approach, “he’s taking old-school basketball and making it cool.”

The 25-year-old Haliburton hasn’t always been basketball’s cool kid. He has an awkward, herky-jerky jump shot, which he has said contributed to his relatively light college recruitment. He fell to the 12th selection in the NBA draft.

“I was a no-star [recruit] in high school,” he said.

Even once he established himself as a standout in the NBA, leading the league in assists and making a pair of All-Star teams, he has retained a reputation as a bit of an oddball. Fans on social media have compared his play to that of Steve Urkel in an episode of “Family Matters.”

And at the Olympics in Paris, Haliburton won a gold medal—despite hardly seeing the floor on a roster loaded with all-time greats. He took the lack of playing time in stride, posting a photo on social media of himself with his medal.

“When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A,” he captioned the picture.

As the Pacers try to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter-century, though, there is no teammate their players would rather have. Over this postseason, nearly 30% of the Pacers’ shots have been what the NBA designates as “wide open,” without a defender within six feet of the shooter.

It’s no surprise that number leads the league. What is surprising is how Haliburton creates all those open looks: not by controlling the game, but by letting it go.