Former Pacers Star Reveals He Never Felt 'Wanted' By Indiana

A former Pacers player reveals that he felt the franchise never embraced him while he was with the team.

Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers are one of the rare small-market franchises that are not afraid to take big swings when it comes to making trades. Over the last decade, they have traded Paul George for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, Sabonis for Tyrese Haliburton, and Bruce Brown for Pascal Siakam.

All of those trades ended up benefitting the Pacers greatly. Kevin Pritchard is someone who approaches the trade market carefully, but he usually knows exactly what the team needs and a fair price for it. That Haliburton/Sabonis trade set the wheels in motion for Haliburton to be an All-NBA player and sign a supermax contract.

There were other pieces in that trade as well. Haliburton came over with Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson in exchange for Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday, and a 2023 second-round pick. Thompson played just two games for the Pacers before being bought out.

Hield stayed with the Pacers until last season when he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. He was a key member of the team with his three-point shooting, shooting 40% from beyond the arc in parts of three seasons in Indiana. He was also Haliburton's best friend on the team before being traded.

When Hield was asked about his tenure with the Pacers when Indiana came to San Francisco to play Hield and the Warriors, he seemed to indicate that he didn't feel loved by the entire franchise.

"Not to say they were playing games, but they were always like, 'Call back, call back, call back, I'll check in,'" Hield said. "'Oh, I'm playing golf, I'll call you back.' I never knew if I was wanted there. I feel like they were just trying to see how it was going to work out. They knew they had to make a move and when they made the Pascal move, they didn't have the money to bring Buddy back. ... It was just never a decisive move to say I was a core piece. I was fine with that, but I just wanted more clarity earlier than for me waiting all summer and into the season."

If that is true, he deserved some better treatment than that. Hield was a free agent at the end of last season, so he needed more clarity on whether the Pacers were interested in keeping him long-term. In the end, they ended up trading him to a team that was contending last season.

Now Hield is with the Warriors playing some solid ball.

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