Tyrese Haliburton’s latest move off the floor came with a familiar Indiana connection.
On Monday, the Indiana Pacers star announced that Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell is joining the PUMA family. Mitchell had previously been with Nike, but this season she has been wearing Haliburton’s signature shoe with the Fever.
Mitchell has been one of the WNBA’s most productive guards this season, averaging 21.6 points per game. The three-time WNBA All-Star has spent her entire career in Indiana.
Haliburton, meanwhile, is still working back from the Achilles tendon tear that kept him out for all of this past season. The two-time NBA All-Star is expected to return next season, and his father, John, believes the Pacers will be back near the top when that happens.
"I expect them right at the top," John told Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson. "I'm not going to lie to you.
If you know basketball and you've been paying attention, you know that all of our rookies and second-year players got a chance to really go out there and grow through this run. They got a chance to experience the game at the highest level, slow it down, and understand exactly what it takes to win.
"Now, by the time Tyrese gets back on the floor, these young guys have already been through the fire. So you tell me-what is going to stop them from going to the top?
New York won the championship this year, but they won it because Indiana wasn't fully standing in their way at the very end. Next year, with Tyrese back, Indiana will be standing right there."
Before the injury, Haliburton put together a strong 2024-25 season for Indiana. He averaged 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 9.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.7 blocks per game, earning All-NBA Third Team honors.
The Pacers got Haliburton from the Sacramento Kings in the February 2022 Domantas Sabonis trade, and he has been a centerpiece ever since. In a Pacers uniform, he has averaged 19.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 10.1 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.6 blocks per game.
Haliburton also signed a five-year, $244 million extension with Indiana in July 2023. His salary will be $48,924,624 next season, then $52,298,736 in 2027-28 and $55,672,848 in 2028-29, the final year of the deal.
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From there, Dustin Dopirak connected Indiana to Gary Trent Jr. as a free-agent name worth watching, and the fit is easy enough to understand on paper. Trents recent production gives him some appeal, but the real question for the Pacers is whether a backcourt addition like that can be squeezed into the kind of salary lane theyre working with as they try to improve the roster without getting too far out over their skis. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Draft Move Just Raised A Familiar Free Agency Concern
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Micah Potter is part of that conversation, along with the broader plan for center depth after the teams recent roster moves. Indiana has made a habit of keeping the front end of the roster flexible and sorting out the edges later, and this offseason looks set to test that same approach again as the Pacers try to balance immediate coverage with longer-term fit. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Fans Should Appreciate What Tyrese Haliburton Gives Indiana
In a league that keeps reminding teams how hard it is to find a true lead guard, Indiana has one of the best in Tyrese Haliburton. That matters more than ever when you look around at how other contenders are built, from the Knicks to the Thunder to the Spurs, all of them valuing elite point guard play as the engine for everything else. Haliburton has already shown he can be the kind of organizer and creator a franchise can build around, and Pacers fans have every reason to appreciate how rare that is.
There is, though, a different layer to the conversation right now. Haliburton is working his way back from an Achilles injury, which naturally changes both the immediate picture and the long-term discussion in Indiana. The Pacers still know what they have when he is right, but the question hanging over the franchise is how much of that edge remains as he returns and how quickly it can translate back into winning at the level Indiana has come to expect. [Read more 🡒]