All-NBA Guard Did Not Want The Cleveland Cavaliers To Draft Him

The Cleveland Cavaliers have never really been a marquee destination, although they appear to be trending in the right direction after Donovan Mitchell agreed to a three-year extension with the club.

It doesn’t really come as much of a surprise.

Outside of the LeBron James years, the Cavaliers haven’t experienced a whole lot of success, and up until recently, they had widely been viewed as one of the worst organizations in basketball.

Cleveland isn’t exactly a bustling market, either.

Apparently, we should count Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton among those who have not exactly held a positive view of the Cavs.

Haliburton was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the 12th overall pick of the 2020 NBA Draft, which seemed fairly low given the buzz surrounding him going into the draft.

There had been rumblings that Haliburton forced his way to Sacramento, and then-Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams even said that the Suns “couldn’t” draft Haliburton at No. 10.

Haliburton denies the rumors and said he would have had no problem going to Phoenix. There were only two teams for which he did not want to play: the Atlanta Hawks…and the Cavaliers.

“I was open to going anywhere that wasn’t those two teams,” Hailburton said, via Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports. “And any team that didn’t pick me, I don’t know.”

Cleveland owned the fifth overall pick that year and ended up choosing Auburn guard Isaac Okoro, who is currently a restricted free agent.

In Haliburton’s defense, the Cavs were horrendous in 2020. They had just come off back-to-back 19-win campaigns, and it didn’t look like things were getting any better. That they went just 22-50 that ensuing season (which was shortened by the pandemic) is evidence of that.

Haliburton’s disdain for the Cavaliers may have also been due to the fact that they had both Collin Sexton and Darius Garland in their backcourt at the time, so finding consistent minutes (and getting enough shots) would have been difficult.

The Iowa State product spent just one-and-a-half seasons with the Kings before being traded to the Pacers midway through the 2021-22 campaign.

Haliburton has gone on to register back-to-back All-Star appearances and also earned an All-NBA Third Team selection this season.