Guys like playing with Tyrese Haliburton. Don’t take my word for it, here is Lakers star Austin Reaves talking about his Team USA teammate from the World Cup last summer.
Austin Reaves on Tyrese Haliburton, with whom he played on @usabasketball: “I told D-Lo before the season started that if they’re competing in the East, I think Tyrese has a chance to win an MVP at some point. The way he plays, the unselfishness, he makes his teammates better.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) December 8, 2023
Haliburton is on a roll and saved his best games of the season for the biggest stage when the Pacers knocked off the Celtics and Bucks in back-to-back games to advance to the In-Season Tournament Finals.
Haliburton wants to use this run and his superstar turn to recruit other stars to join him in Indiana, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said from Las Vegas.
“This is a team with salary cap space and draft picks. [Haliburton] knows that his team president Kevin Pritchard has been really aggressive in the last year trying to chase players like Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby in Toronto, offering big trade packages for players who could become free agents in the near future.
“What changes the equation for the Pacers now is that they know they have a Pied Piper in Tyrese Haliburton that guys are going to want to play with. And as Haliburton said to me, ‘I’m going to get you shots, I’m going to make life easy for you, and we are going to win.’ And that is really Haliburton’s mission right now, to use this tournament, to use this season to start making the case to star players around the league, ‘Come play with me in Indiana.’”
Milwaukee and the Bucks are an apt comparison. It’s not a market where top free agents will be looking to jump, but if the Pacers trade for a star they can keep him if they keep winning. Guys want to win and play with other guys who make them look good, and Haliburton can help the Pacers check both boxes.
Will it work? Good question. But Haliburton and Pritchard know they have to strike while the iron is hot — and the Indiana Pacers are the hottest thing in the league right now.
