Report: Tyrese Haliburton to sign five-year, $260 million contract extension with the Indiana Pacers

Haliburton is going to be with the Pacers for a while

According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Tyrese Haliburton has agreed to a five-year, $260 million contract extension with the Indiana Pacers.

Haliburton is eligible for a rookie-scale extension this offseason since he has completed three years of his rookie-scale contract. He was selected 12th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft and was traded to Indiana in February of 2022.

This past season, the crafty ball handler was named an NBA All-Star for the first time. He finished the season averaging 20.7 points and 10.4 assists per game, and his 47.6% assist percentage topped the whole league. He is a brilliant playmaker, even at a high volume, and he pairs it with efficient scoring. His three-point percentage was over 40% this past season, and few players in the NBA blend passing and shooting like Haliburton.

He is the Pacers identity. His ability to play in transition and create shots for his teammates in the halfcourt is the engine that keeps the team going. Indiana's offensive rating was over six points per 100 possessions better with Haliburton on the court than off.

That's why President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard called Haliburton a "partner" earlier in the offseason. "We have this amazing quarterback point guard," Pritchard said before noting that Haliburton would be a part of the conversations about team-building decisions going forward.

Haliburton is a basketball junky, a good recruiter, and a special player. He could be in the All-NBA mix going forward, especially with the NBA removing positional requirements from the teams. That is a hard level of talent to acquire, but Indiana has it.

Now, they have him for five more years. However, his extension does not kick in until 2024-25 since Haliburton is already under contract for next season at $5.8 million, so he is technically under contract with the team through 2029, pending any options on the end of the deal.

"Ty is our guy," Pritchard said in April. "We want Ty here for as long as he wants to be here. I don't think that's going to be too complicated."

Given that the deal is reportedly agreed to early in the free agency period, it seems as if Pritchard was right and things weren't too complicated. More details could change the value of Haliburton's deal in total, and $260 million is as high as it could possibly go. Haliburton will have to reach some performance criteria to reach that salary number in full this coming season, and the salary cap in 2024-25 also matters. But players at his talent level and his age are hard to come by. Indiana is smart to lock him up for as long as possible.

Haliburton was present at several Pacers pre-draft workouts and is set to play for Team USA this summer. He is becoming a household name in the basketball world. Now, for the next five years, he is a part of the Indiana Pacers organization.

The Pacers have been searching for a face of the franchise since Victor Oladipo went down with an injury in 2019, and now they have one in Tyrese Haliburton. Going forward, the Pacers embark on the task of building a winning, competitive team around the young guard. This free agent period is their first chance to make those steps.

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