Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton denies that he prevented the Phoenix Suns from drafting him, as former head coach Monty Williams suggested he did.
“No, that’s incorrect,” Haliburton tells Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports. “That’s definitely not the case. I was open to going anywhere that wasn’t those two teams. And any team that didn’t pick me, I don’t know.”
Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton Shuts Down Suns, Draft Rumors
Olson notes that ESPN’s Jonathan Givony reported that Haliburton’s team was selective about sharing his medical information ahead of the 2020 NBA Draft, as he was rehabbing a broken wrist. It logically follows that the Suns could have been one such team, especially in light of Williams’s comments. However, Haliburton has explicitly stated that he only told the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers not to draft him.
“The truth is I told one or two teams not to draft me. It was Atlanta and it was Cleveland,” Haliburton told now Los Angeles Lakers head coach J.J. Redick on The Old Man and The Three.
Our guy Tyrese Haliburton on the commitment he had to Sac and what he learned from suddenly being traded. pic.twitter.com/L9MUlmx6to
— TheOldMan&TheThree (@OldManAndThree) February 25, 2022
“I told Atlanta don’t pick me because they have this guard-heavy room,” Haliburton reiterates, “and I told Cleveland not to pick me. You just picked two back-to-back point guards… From there, it was open season for everybody and they didn’t pick me.”
As Haliburton notes, both the Hawks and Cavs’ had backcourt logjams that were ill-suited to optimize team chemistry. Adding Haliburton to that mixture could have been explosive. However, instead of a fireworks display, those franchises might have been home to Mount Vesuvius.
The Suns’ backcourt weren’t an ideal environment for Haliburton’s growth either though. True, they didn’t have young guards battling it out for minutes like Atlanta and Cleveland. Nonetheless, he would’ve been playing behind future Hall of Fame inductee Chris Paul and franchise star Devin Booker.
The route to him starting could’ve been as long as Aaron Rodgers’s was when he was playing with the Green Bay Packers.
The Last Word On Tyrese Haliburton
Ultimately, all is well that ends well in Haliburton’s case.
Though the Sacramento Kings ended up trading up just a year and a half after drafting him, he’s emerged as a top-tier point guard. One of the increasingly rare pass-first point guards, Haliburton may not have landed with the Suns, but he’s still drawn comparisons to Steve Nash. The Wisconsin native is now a perennial All-Star. Indiana is a bonafide playoff contender.
Yet, Phoenix might have been in a better position had they drafted Haliburton.
The Suns ended up trading Paul for Bradley Beal last season, a move they may not have made if they had Haliburton waiting in the wings. They might have targeted a frontcourt player, leading to a more connected and thus formidable team. In fact, if they had Haliburton during their Paul-led playoff runs, they may have had enough talent to win a championship by now. Instead, the Suns drafted Jalen Smith, who’s fighting just to be in a rotation.
