Tyrese Haliburton Reveals He Was Nearly Getting Drafted by Warriors

Tyrese Haliburton spent most of this offseason working his way back from a torn Achilles tendon, but a podcast appearance this month pulled him back to a very different chapter of his career. He sat down on the Numbers on the Board podcast and walked through the pre-draft workout he had with the Golden State Warriors back in 2020, and how close he thought he came to landing in the Bay Area instead of Indiana. Haliburton said the workout was about as good as it gets. "My Golden State workout, that was the best workout of my life," he said on the podcast. He left that gym convinced the Warriors were taking him with the second pick, and the interview that followed only added to the feeling, with the team telling him he fit their system about as well as any prospect could. Where it Went The Warriors went a different direction. They used that second overall pick on James Wiseman, the seven foot center out of Memphis, and Haliburton slid all the way to 12, where Sacramento scooped him up in the first round. He spent about a year and a half with the Kings before a trade sent him to Indiana in February of 2022, and he has run the Pacers' offense ever since, growing into a two time All-Star. His numbers tell the story of what Golden State passed on, since he averaged 18.6 points and 9.2 assists a game across 73 starts in his most recent full season. Wiseman never turned into the player Golden State hoped for. Injuries limited him to 60 games across three seasons in the Bay Area, and the team traded him away in February of 2023 in a four team deal that brought Gary Payton II back to Golden State. It is one of those what-if stories that gets more interesting with time, now that Haliburton is one of the better young point guards in the league while Payton is still on the Warriors roster. Where The Warriors Stand Now None of this changes what Golden State is building around right now. The front office ran it back this summer, re-signing Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, De'Anthony Melton and Payton after missing out on LeBron James, who signed with Philadelphia instead. Stephen Curry turned 38 this year and is still doing plenty of the heavy lifting, averaging 26.6 points a game across 43 games last season, but the championship window keeps getting smaller with every year that passes. That is part of why the Warriors leaned toward experience over upside with Yaxel Lendeborg and Lajae Jones in this year's draft, even after the LeBron James signing broke down once the picks were made. The roster still has real questions about depth, and one recent evaluation of the roster even laid out how wide the range of outcomes looks for this group heading into the season. Others have argued that standing pat this offseason wastes more of Curry's remaining prime than it protects. Haliburton says he feels ready for whatever comes next in Indiana after a long year of rehab, even if his path there once ran through Golden State.