In February, the Pacers made a major organizational decision that included trading Domantas Sabonis to the Kings for Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield. The move was surprising for many reasons, as Haliburton was only in his second season with Sacramento and Sabonis was one of Indiana’s best players for the previous three seasons.
However, Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan believes Haliburton is worth giving up a player like Sabonis.
“We're gonna build our team around him,” Buchanan said, via Basketball News. “We see him as hopefully being the next Reggie Miller. We had a Reggie Miller mural painted on a building in downtown Indianapolis, and I think our dream is that one day Tyrese will have [his own] up somewhere in downtown Indianapolis.”
In just 26 games with Indiana, Haliburton averaged 17.5 points and 9.6 assists per game. With Malcolm Brogdan now in Brooklyn, Haliburton will take over as the team’s primary point guard and offensive focus.
While with the Kings, Haliburton had to play alongside De’Aaron Fox, meaning he didn’t play as much point guard when the two were on the floor together. He said it was difficult for him to accept the trade at first, but now he is very happy with being in Indiana partially because of the ability to play point guard.
“If I'm being completely honest, that [trade] is such a blessing for me,” he said. “It's so easy now to look at it that way, but it's a complete blessing for me to be in the situation that I'm in, to have the ability to showcase what I can do and play my natural position. It's helping me a ton.”
Along with Haliburton, the Pacers added Bennedict Mathurin with pick No. 6 in the draft, giving them a talented backcourt to build off. But going forward, the Pacers are Haliburton’s team.
