In an appearance on Kevin Garnett’s KG Certified podcast, Tyrese Haliburton discussed his tenure playing with the Kings and his experience with Sacramento’s star point guard, De’Aaron Fox. Haliburton discussed the success of the two-point guard front deployed by the Kings, fielding him and Fox on the court during his tenure. The 2023 All-Star talked about how both the players found their sync, depending on how they played each other.
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Before outshining his expectations at Indiana, Haliburton played for two seasons with the Sacramento Kings, where he was drafted as a 12th overall pick. The Indiana Pacers point guard is averaging 26.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 12.0 assists this season with a 52.0% field goal percentage.
Haliburton considers himself and De’Aaron Fox to be two of the current elite point guards in the league. Though playing alongside a player equally talented was graceful, Haliburton was concerned that both of their ball-handling skills would be detrimental to the other players in the team.
Perhaps this is why he chose to find a new pathway in Indiana, which he is seemingly succeeding at. Speaking to KG on his experience of playing two-point guard front at Sacramento, Haliburton said,
“I think it’s [two guard front] just situationally based and how people can play off each other. So, obviously me being with Sacramento with Fox, two of the elite point guards in the game today. I don’t know how it works with us together ’cause we are so elite with the ball in our hands. So, I feel like you are doing Fox a disservice to take the ball off his hands and probably doing me a disservice taking the ball off my hands.”
When both Haliburton and Fox played together, the stats favored Haliburton more. At the same time, Fox suffered terribly in terms of performance to elevate himself as a star in the Kings’ roster. Haliburton was the perfect floor general to run the offense efficiently and be a threat to score. However, since the trade, Haliburton further blossomed as expected, while Fox emerged as a star for the Sacramento Kings.
Tyrese Haliburton feels he is doing well in his career, evidenced by his averages and stats this season. Speaking of his ball-handling capabilities, the Pacers guard showed confidence in his ability to play both on and off the ball. Adding on to that, Haliburton told KG,
“I think it depends on situations. There’s certain situations where it can work ’cause guys can play better off the ball. But I think that we got some good going with where I’m just so bold. Where I have the ball in my hands a lot. I’m capable to play off but they want me to have it more where the guards next to me can have it if they need it but they used to play off of it.”
Tyrese Haliburton’s prowess was visible throughout the In-Season Tournament (IST), where the Pacers went undefeated throughout the competition to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. Though Haliburton and Co. failed to clinch the IST title, he was close in the race for the tournament’s MVP, going neck-to-neck with the 4x NBA champion, LeBron James.
De’Aaron Fox found confidence in the Sacramento Kings after the Haliburton trade
In their careers, Tyrese Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox have played 91 games together at the Sacramento Kings. As a duo, Haliburton averaged 12.6 points, 5.7 assists, and 3.4 rebounds with Fox, while without Haliburton, Fox is currently averaging 29.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 6.4 assists for Sacramento.
Comparing Fox’s current stats with Haliburton’s, the Kings point guard seems to have found a better fit after his former teammate’s trade. In fact, Fox’s morale was extremely high when the team trusted their faith in him after trading Haliburton in 2022.
Expressing his thoughts on the trade on Draymond Green’s podcast, Fox said, “For me, it’s like yo, they believe in me. But two, it’s like motherf*****, we just traded somebody who could be a franchise point guard either here or somewhere else. So, you better get on your s***; you better start winning.”
Even though every fan loves two great talents playing together in a team, there is no doubt that both the guards have shown positive growth playing in different teams.
