Kings trade Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield for Pacers star Domantas Sabonis
The Indiana Pacers are trading two-time All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis to the Sacramento Kings for a package that will include second-year guard Tyrese Haliburton, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Tuesday. The teams confirmed the trade later Tuesday.
Sacramento also sent sharpshooter Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson's expiring contract to Indiana, while the Kings return Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and a 2023 second-round pick from the Pacers.
Rumors that Sabonis wanted out of Indiana circled the NBA for the past year. The Athletic reported in December that Pacers executive Kevin Pritchard was finally considering a full rebuild, listening to offers for Sabonis or front-court partner Myles Turner and Caris LeVert. On pace to miss the playoffs for a second straight season after five consecutive first-round exits, the Pacers dealt LeVert to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday for a late first-round pick in June, an early second-round pick and Ricky Rubio's expiring salary.
“At some point in time, we’ve got to figure out how to manufacture that real star," Pritchard told The Athletic's Jared Weiss in December, tipping his hand on how he really felt about Sabonis' ceiling. "We had it with Paul [George]. He had an 'it' factor and so did Victor [Oladipo] and so we’re trying to get that."
He may have found it in Haliburton, who turns 22 years old this month and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting last season. Haliburton averaged 14.3 points (on 46/41/84 shooting splits), 7.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.4 combined blocks and steals in 34.5 minutes over 51 games for the Kings this season. Those numbers have increased significantly as he has assumed primary playmaking duties in the absence of running mate De'Aaron Fox.
The Kings made it known they wanted to build around Fox and Haliburton last month, when The Athletic's Shams Charania reported they informed Fox he would not be included in offers for Sabonis.
The Pacers also acquired Hield, who has shot 40% on 7.6 3-point attempts per game for his six-year career. Hield's unhappiness in Sacramento has been no secret. The Kings nearly traded him to the Lakers for Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell this past summer, before Los Angeles pivoted to Russell Westbrook. Hield has two seasons remaining after this one on the four-year, $94 million extension he signed in 2019.
Sabonis is no small concession for Haliburton and Hield. He was an Eastern Conference All-Star each of the previous two seasons and might have been again if the depleted Pacers were not in 13th place. He is averaging 18.9 points (58/32/74), 12.1 rebounds and five assists in 34.7 minutes over 46 games this year.
Like the Pacers, the Kings are 13th in the Western Conference, but only two games behind the New Orleans Pelicans for the final play-in tournament spot. The Pelicans also bolstered their roster on Tuesday, trading a package of players and picks to the Portland Trail Blazers for CJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr.
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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach