How Rick Carlisle nearly prevented the Pacers from getting Tyrese Haliburton

The Indiana Pacers are very happy to have Tyrese Haliburton as their point guard. As the days go by, the trade looks even better. Indiana traded Domantas Sabonis and some filler in order to get Haliburton. Now, he's an All-NBA player for the Pacers.

Haliburton led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade. He was a major reason for that despite the fact that he hasn't been fully healthy since January. Once he's fully healthy again next year, he should be even better, especially in the playoffs.

Indiana almost wasn't able to land Haliburton because he almost didn't end up being drafted by the Kings. Sacramento was only in a position to draft Haliburton because of failed attempts by Rick Carlisle and the Dallas Mavericks to go up to draft him.

Rick Carlisle almost kept Tyrese Haliburton from going to the Pacers

Haliburton was taken in the 2020 Draft. He was taken 12th overall by Sacramento. Dallas really liked what they saw from him though and was doing everything they could in order to move up ahead of the Kings to get him. No one would bite on the packages they were making available.

Dallas was offering both the 18th pick and Jalen Brunson for an opportunity to move up into the top ten to draft Haliburton. The only problem is that no one was interested enough in that package to bite. Instead, the Kings was able to bring in Haliburton, which allowed Indiana to eventually trade for him.

Had Dallas been able to draft Haliburton, it's unlikely that the Pacers would have been able to pry him away from the Mavs. Haliburton would have been a perfect fit next to Luka Doncic. They never would have wanted Domantas Sabonis over another guard who can play off of Luka.

It's good that Carlisle now gets to coach him instead of back in 2020. The Pacers are certainly happy about it too.