Revisiting the Pacers trade for Tyrese Haliburton: One year later

Tyrese’s Impact in Indiana:

Tyrese Haliburton being in Indiana has not only been beneficial to him and the team, but it has been beneficial to his teammates as well, specifically Myles Turner.

Prior to the Haliburton trade, Myles Turner was looked at as somewhat of a liability on offense, and a guy that was always pegged as “The idea of him is better than what he actually is”. Now, however, that sentiment has changed, and Tyrese Haliburton has helped tremendously with that.

Before going down with a foot injury in January of 2022, Myles Turner was averaging 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game, which were numbers consistent with what he’s always averaged throughout his 7-year career in Indiana. Myles was still sidelined when Haliburton was traded to Indiana and didn’t play a single game with the new-look Pacers in the 2021-22 season.

In the 2022-23 season, however, Myles was back and mostly healthy, barring a couple of minor injuries. and balled out with his new teammates. Throughout his 48 games played this season, Myles has been averaging 17.5 points (career-high), 8 rebounds (career-high), and 2.4 blocks, while shooting 54% from the field (career-high), 39% from the 3-point line (career-high), and 78% from the free-throw line. These numbers pretty much speak for themselves, but what they don’t fully show, is how spectacular these buckets have been. Myles has been rejuvenated as a finisher inside, with the paint cleared up from Sabonis’ departure, with his 65 TS% being good enough for 17th in the NBA.

It was widely known for a while that Myles and Sabonis were both true centers having to play out of position so there was a bit of a logjam in the frontcourt over who would get that position, with the two essentially trading places on offense and defense. Now however, the center position is Myles’ for the taking, and he’s used that to his full advantage, playing out of his mind en route to a career resurgence of some sort, and Tyrese Haliburton has helped a ton with said resurgence. The Haliburton/Turner two-man game is one of the most spectacular parts of the 2023 Indiana Pacers and Myles and Haliburton have stated on numerous occasions how much they enjoy playing with each other, with Tyrese even celebrating on Instagram when Turner signed an extension with the Pacers on January 28.