Report: Kings Almost Traded De’Aaron Fox Instead Of Tyrese Haliburton

According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, the Sacramento Kings almost traded De’Aaron Fox instead of Tyrese Haliburton in 2022. 

However, the Kings couldn’t find a suitable return for Fox, so they traded Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to the Indiana Pacers for Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and Domantas Sabonis.

“But by the time 2022 came, when then-general manager Monte McNair and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox were looking for ways to turn their middling team into a playoff contender, Fox’s market value had plummeted to the point where Haliburton became the focal point of their rebuilding efforts. League sources say the Kings explored trades involving Fox, who had recently signed a five-year, $160 million deal, but simply didn’t find a suitable return,” Amick wrote. 

The Kings traded Fox to the San Antonio Spurs this season. Meanwhile, Haliburton and the Pacers are in the NBA Finals. 

Sacramento made the playoffs in 2023 for the first time since 2006. The team lost to the Golden State Warriors in seven games. 

The Kings missed the playoffs in 2024 and this year. Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine are the top three players on the roster. Sacramento acquired LaVine from the Chicago Bulls in the Fox trade. 

“Our team was kind of at a crossroads,” Pacers GM Chad Buchanan told Amick while reflecting on the Haliburton trade. “We didn’t really have a guy, like a young player, that you could really build around. Now Domas (Sabonis) was a terrific player and a very productive player. But we felt like in today’s modern NBA, it’s hard to build around a center unless you’ve got, like, a (Denver Nuggets star Nikola) Jokic — an MVP-caliber center. So we tried to target some young guards, playmaking guards around the league that we thought maybe fit the bill. They’re very hard to acquire, obviously.”