Currently, it’s February 11th, 2023, and the NBA Trade Deadline has just passed. While the Pacers didn’t really make that many moves (we got George Hill back) and fell short to pry OG Anunoby away from Toronto, we have seen a plethora of league-shattering moves, such as Kevin Durant heading to Phoenix, Kyrie Irving going to Dallas, and D’Angelo Russell on his way back to the Lakers. With all these moves being made, I’d like to harken back to last year’s deadline for a bit and revisit perhaps the second biggest move made last year, which was of course the trade that sent Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Domantas Sabonis going to the Sacramento Kings. I’d like to talk about this trade for two reasons: one because this trade changed both Indiana’s and Sacramento’s fortunes for the foreseeable future, and two because Indiana didn’t make any notable moves at the deadline and I need to remind people that we can still make moves If need be.
The Trade:
Indiana got: Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson
Sacramento got: Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, Domantas Sabonis, and a 2023 2nd-round pick
So, the trade was a bit more than Haliburton for Sabonis straight up, Indiana also picked up Buddy Hield, who we’ll get to later, and Tristan Thompson, who played 4 games for Indiana and who you can now see as an analyst on ESPN sometimes!
In exchange for getting Haliburton and Hield, Indiana had to of course give up Sabonis, as well as valuable role players Jeremy Lamb and Justin Holiday, although if you look at the Woj tweet you’d think we had 2 Jeremy Lambs.
At first, the reaction to this trade was pretty strong, as people were praising Indiana and making fun of Sacramento for trading away their young, budding point guard.
However, it’s been a year since that trade, and some opinions have changed, for better or for worse. Let’s do a deep dive into this trade and look at the pros and cons of both teams, and ultimately find out who “won” the trade.
Side note: While Buddy Hield is an important part of this trade, I will mainly be focusing on Tyrese Haliburton’s impact on the team to make the comparison fairer since Sabonis has been the only player on Sacramento’s side that has really made an impact. So without further ado, let’s get started!!
Pacers Side:
Since this trade, Tyrese Haliburton has played 71 out of a possible 83 games and has only missed significant time recently due to elbow and knee problems that kept him out for most of January.
Buddy Hield, on the other hand, has not missed a game since coming to Indiana, with 83 out of 83 possible games played for him. As a matter of fact, Buddy Hield has so far been the only player to play and start every single game of the season, with 57 out of 57 games played and started in the 2022-23 season (Bennedict Mathurin has also played 57 games but has come off the bench for all but 6 games.
Throughout these 71 games, Haliburton has been averaging about 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 10 assists on 48/40/85% shooting splits as well as also currently leading the NBA in assists with 10.3 per game on the season. In addition, before missing time with injury, Tyrese was also ninth in the league in 3-pointers made and was first in total assists, having since been usurped by Trae Young and Nikola Jokic.
Buddy Hield, on the other hand, is averaging about 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists per game while also shooting 41% from 3. Currently, Hield is leading the NBA in 3-pointers made with 218 and is 7th in 3-point percentage, shooting 43% on the year.
In the 71 games before Tyrese came to Indiana, the Pacers had a record of 28-43 stretching back to the previous season and had no real direction as far as their future was going. They had Sabonis, as well as Malcolm Brogdon and Caris LeVert but knew from their 19-35 start to the 2022 season that changes had to be made, and fast because sensational rookie Chris Duarte was good, however, entered the NBA at a ripe age of 24, so he wasn’t exactly the spring chicken they could put their faith in.
In the 71 games that Tyrese has played in Indiana, not counting games out with injury, the Pacers have had a record of 29-42, and finished the 2022 season at 25-57, snagging Bennedict Mathurin with the 6th pick of the draft. Currently, the Pacers are 25-32 and are the 12th seed in the East. While this looks virtually identical to the games prior to Haliburton’s arrival, what this doesn’t show is that Indiana was sitting at a record of 23-18 and the 6th seed in the East (one game behind Embiid, Harden, and the 76ers) before Haliburton’s January 11th injury and subsequent absences from games. Despite early predictions from a lot of people, myself included, to be a lottery team, Indiana was shocking everyone and was stringing together a fun and exciting team that was winning games, akin to the 2018 Pacers of 5 years prior.
However, this did not last through Haliburton’s injury woes, and during his time away from the team, Indiana dropped to 1-9 and fell HARD in the standings, dropping to 10th, and have since only gotten worse, dropping an additional 2 spots as Haliburton and the rest of the team struggle to get back to their pre-injury groove. This does not, however, discount how fantastic they were playing prior to the injury, as a team that was previously thought to be tanking starting the season at 23-18 is nothing to sneeze at, and it’s rude to sneeze at things. Only time will tell if the Pacers’ early season run was a mere fluke, or if Tyrese and co can get things back together and string some wins together again.
Kings Side:
Since this trade, Domantas Sabonis has played 68 out of a possible 81 games for Sacramento and has only missed serious time near the end of last season where he missed 9 games due to personal reasons.
Throughout these 68 games, Sabonis has been averaging about 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 6.7 assists on 59/33/75% splits from the field as well as being second in the league in rebounds per game at 12.2 and first in total rebounds. Sabonis is also 12th in the league in field goal percentage at 61% and 10th in True Shooting at 67 TS%. Sabonis is also 17th in the league in minutes and 14th in PER, right above Tyrese Haliburton. Sabonis has fit into the Kings’ offense as if he’s always been there and has had no problems taking over the lone center role that he used to have to fight over with Myles Turner down in Indiana.
In the 68 games before Sabonis came to Sacramento, the Kings had a record of 27-41 stretching back to the previous season and were on their way to missing the playoffs for the 16th year in a row and were by far the laughing stock of the league. At that time, the Kings were seen as nothing more than a punchline and a place where young talent went to get wasted and not live up to their potential. They had young talent in De’Aaron Fox, Davion Mitchell, and the aforementioned Haliburton but struggled with a logjam at the guard position and didn’t have enough minutes for everybody.
In the 68 games that Sabonis has played in Sacramento, the Kings have a record of 35-33, and finished the 2022 season at 30-52, taking Keegan Murray with the 5th pick of the draft. Currently, the Kings have a surprising record of 31-24 and are the current holders of the 3rd seed in the tough Western Conference with less than half of the season to go. There’s no need to single out games here, as Sacramento’s resurgence has come out of nowhere, as when the trade first went down, everybody was talking about how bad of a move it was for the Kings and how they should’ve traded Fox instead of Haliburton. Now, however, the Kings have surprised everyone in the NBA world and are well on their way to turning their franchise around and making some real playoff noise for the first time since the Chris Webber/Mike Bibby/Peja Stojakovic era of the early 2000s.
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.
Sabonis’ Impact in Sacramento:
Domantas Sabonis has also had an immense impact on the Sacramento Kings and his teammates, mainly De’Aaron Fox. Following the trade, many people in sports media and social media said the Kings should’ve kept Haliburton and traded Fox instead, noting that Haliburton showed more potential and is 3 years younger than Fox with a higher possible ceiling as well. While all that is up for debate, one thing that isn’t is how this trade has helped De’Aaron Fox blossom into a legit playoff-level star and has also made NBA media notice what the Sacramento Kings are doing.
While Fox’s numbers didn’t take a huge leap as Myles Turner’s did after the trade (he is posting a career-high in FG% at 50.6%), it’s how he’s getting those points that matters. While he’s still a fantastic scorer at 24.4 points per game, good for 20th in the league, the main attraction of the Kings’ offense has been the Fox/Sabonis pick and roll. With Sabonis being dubbed “an Ox” by Fox shortly after the trade, he has lived up to that name with his great strength and deceptive athleticism, being one of the top screen setters in the league, ranking second in screen assists per game with 5.6 and first in total screen assists with a whopping 295, 16 more than second-place Ivica Zubac. “The Fox and the Ox” as Mark Jones dubbed them have turned into a very exciting duo for Kings fans to get excited for and for league pass owners to check out every once in a while.
In addition to Fox, Sabonis’ presence has also opened up the floor a lot for the 3-point shooters on the Kings to flourish, with the Kings having 5 players on the team shooting above 35% from 3 (minimum 1 made 3 per game). Rookie Keegan Murray’s even leading all rookies in 3PT% with 42% on the season (minimum 100 attempts) and is currently 10th in the league in that field. In addition to Murray, the Kings can also rely on the sweet shooting of Kevin Huerter, Harrison Barnes, Terence Davis, Trey Lyles, and even Sabonis can occasionally step behind the arc and make one, with him shooting a career-high 35.4% from 3 (on 65 attempts however).
With all these shooters and the superb passing ability of Sabonis, kicking out to the open man whenever possible, the Sacramento Kings, dubbed the “Beam Team” are finally on the rise, and are a team you can expect to see in the playoffs for the next few years. Light the beam, Kings fans.
Accolades and Final Thoughts:
As far as accolades go, both Sabonis and Haliburton have been named 2023 NBA All-Stars, with De’Aaron Fox getting in as an injury reserve. In addition to being selected as an All-Star, Haliburton and Buddy Hield will also be representing the Pacers in the 3-Point Shootout. That, along with Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard being in the Rising Stars game ensures that the 2023 All-Star Weekend will not be short of Indiana Pacers talent.
Prior to the trade, the Pacers and Kings were in completely different situations, with the Pacers looking to remain in mediocrity with a roster of not exactly young, but not exactly old players and no real direction for the future besides being an eternal “tough out” team while the Kings looked to continue missing the playoffs with a bunch of young and talented but underutilized players.
Now however, both teams’ fortunes have been reversed, with the Pacers still losing but having a bunch of young talent and most likely holding a top pick in the loaded 2023 NBA Draft along with Haliburton and star rookie Bennedict Mathurin leading the charge, while the Kings are playoff-bound for the first time since 2006, breaking a 16 year postseason drought, the longest in NBA history.
When news of this trade first broke down, initial reactions were to praise the Pacers for “fleecing” the Kings and to make fun of the Kings’ front office for being incompetent. That might have been a bit too early of a conclusion, as the Kings have certainly shown that they have most definitely made the most out of the trade, and now finally have a future to look forward to for the first time since the early 2000s.
All in all, the trade between the Sacramento Kings and the Indiana Pacers on February 8th, 2023 will go down as one of the rare balanced trades in NBA history in my opinion. At the end of the day, you will always have the people that disagree, and claim either the Pacers or the Kings won the trade but it is clear that this trade helped out both franchises in different ways, but ultimately helped them find what they were missing and needed most, a direction going forward.