- Tyrese Haliburton didn’t know Pascal Siakam well when he heard the Pacers were looking to trade for him. One phone call was all it took
OKLAHOMA CITY – Outside of a handful of interactions in summer workouts, Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton didn’t know Pascal Siakam very well, when he learned Indiana might trade for the Toronto All-Star a year ago January.
Haliburton and Siakam had exchanged pleasantries at Rico Runs — the well-known UCLA-based summer pickup games organized by longtime NBA assistant Rico Hines — but otherwise the pair hadn’t often crossed paths. Now, with his front office considering a move to pair him with Siakam, Indiana’s emerging franchise face thought it would be a good idea for the two to connect.
Stepping out of a dinner during the team’s mid-January swing through Atlanta last season, Haliburton talked with Siakam for roughly an hour. That phone call provided the building blocks of a relationship that’s anchored the Pacers’ run to the NBA Finals 17 months later.
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“I wanted to have a conversation, ‘Hey, is this something you actually you want to do? Do you want to be here?’” Haliburton said Saturday, recounting the conversation. “Because I think that the guys who have been a part of the nucleus of this group, we cherish this organization and what we have been able to build here. I think every team, when you ultimately win a championship or play at a high level, there’s a trade that happens or you bring in somebody from the outside to be a part of it and you don’t want to make the wrong move, right.
“If you go in for Pascal, you want it to be about the right things.”
In Siakam, the Pacers were looking for an high-caliber complementary piece to Haliburton. At that point a two-time All-Star, Siakam had also garnered All-NBA second- and third-team nods during his career, and won a title with Toronto in 2019.
And in Indiana, Siakam saw the forming momentum of a franchise rallying around a superlative young point guard. The kind of creative ball handler who could score in bunches but create for teammates with equal ease.
“We had a great conversation, and I think we just very much so aligned on wanting to win and that being the emphasis,” Haliburton said. “I told him that, ‘Hey, we could really play well together. I think I could get you the ball in space and allow you to do what you do.’ He preached that there’s many things that he could do to help me succeed.”
And so it’s been in the year and a half since a three-team trade brought Siakam to Indianapolis.
After re-signing with the Pacers on a four-year contract worth close to $190 million in July, Siakam turned in the third All-Star season of his career this winter. He led Indiana in points and rebounds per game, and thus far is doing the same in the playoffs. He even narrowly edged Haliburton for Eastern Conference finals MVP, after Indiana dispatched the Knicks in six games.
Together, their adaptable skillsets embody a team whose versatility has become one of its greatest strengths. These Pacers can play big or small, defend well, run the floor and find their offense all over it.
Trading for Haliburton handed Indiana a franchise cornerstone around which it could build a winner. Siakam became the final, crucial piece to that puzzle.
Together, they have positioned the Pacers as an NBA title contender for the first time in a quarter century, all of it starting with one forthright phone call between two men crucial to making it possible.
“The biggest thing that I can respect about him is just his work ethic,” Haliburton said. “He comes in the gym, I know he’s going to be there every day. I know the exact hoop he’s going to be on, so I try not to take his hoop. I let him get his one-on-one work in.
“Seeing him work that hard makes me want to work harder, and I think that goes through our group. I love having him as a teammate.”
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