NBA insider has bad news regarding Lakers' interest in Walker Kessler

With the NBA Finals now over and the Oklahoma City Thunder crowned as champions, the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans can fully turn their attention to the task of addressing the team's multiple roster needs.
First on the Lakers' to-do list is acquiring a starting-caliber center. According to one reporter, they may have made a trade offer for Walker Kessler, an emerging 23-year-old stud for the Utah Jazz, and he is someone they have reportedly been interested in for a while.
But per Brett Siegel, Kessler may not even be available.
Via ClutchPoints:
"As reported by ClutchPoints' Los Angeles Lakers insider Anthony Irwin, the Lakers have discussed a potential John Collins trade with the Utah Jazz. Collins has long been on LA's radar as an athletic power forward who can stretch the floor and be a threat to score outside of Luka Doncic and LeBron James," Siegel wrote. "Walker Kessler remains high on the Lakers' wish list as well, although league sources continue to downplay his actual availability in Utah."
The Lakers are reportedly seriously interested in Collins as well, and Irwin reported that they could perhaps look to acquire both Collins and Kessler in the same deal.
Kessler could possibly be the closest thing to the ideal young center for Los Angeles. He averaged 11.1 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game this season, and while he isn't extremely athletic, he could be a reliable lob threat alongside Luka Doncic, not to mention an excellent defensive backbone in the middle.
He will make $4.9 million next season, so he shouldn't cost too much in terms of player compensation, although one has to expect Utah to ask for quite a bit of draft compensation — if he's actually made available.
It should be noted that the CEO of the Jazz is Danny Ainge, the former Boston Celtics guard who is still disliked by many Lakers fans. One has to assume Ainge doesn't want to help his old rivals in any way, especially after he aided the Lakers in the Luka Doncic trade when they roped in his Jazz as a third team in the deal without Ainge knowing it.

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Yahoo

21 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Pacers vs. Thunder NBA Finals: Tyrese Haliburton's devastating injury a brutal reminder of the precariousness of the game

Tyrese Haliburton knew. He knew from the second he planted to try to drive, slipped, hit the ground and lost the ball midway through the first quarter that he wasn't right — that the 'lower leg thing' that had him limping after Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals had snowballed into something worse. But it was Game 5 of a tied championship series, and the sun around which the Indiana Pacers revolves knew how much more difficult the Oklahoma City Thunder would be to topple if he wasn't out there giving them advanced math problems to solve on every defensive possession. Advertisement Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after Game 5 that he and his staff were 'concerned at halftime' about Haliburton's movement on that strained calf — but that his superstar point guard 'insisted on playing' the rest of the way. 'I mean, it's the NBA Finals. It's the Finals, man,' Haliburton said after Indiana's Game 5 loss. 'I've worked my whole life to be here and I want to be out there to compete. Help my teammates any way I can. I was not great tonight by any means, but it's not really a thought of mine to not play here. 'If I can walk, then I want to play.' A follow-up MRI confirmed Haliburton was working on a strained right calf — an injury that, if he'd picked it up during the regular season, may well have put him on the shelf for weeks. In the Finals, though, with the Pacers' backs against the wall, Haliburton and Indiana's medical and training teams explored every option to get him back on the floor as safely as possible. Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers remains down on the court during the first quarter as teammate T.J. McConnell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder check on him in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center on June 22, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (Photo by) (Justin Ford via Getty Images) 'I think I have to be as smart as I want to be,' Haliburton said at the Pacers' practice session before Game 6. 'Have to understand the risks, ask the right questions. I'm a competitor. I want to play … I have a lot of trust in our medical staff. I have a lot of trust in our organization to make the right decision. Advertisement 'I think there's been many situations through the course of my career where they've trusted me on my body. … They trust me to make the right decision on my body when the power is in my hands. I'm trying to try my best to do that.' So Haliburton played — and he played great, scoring 14 points with five assists and three 3-pointers in 23 minutes, during which the Pacers outscored the Thunder by 25 points, to help propel Indiana to a series-leveling victory to force a Game 7. 'I just look at it as I want to be out there to compete with my brothers,' Haliburton said after Game 6. 'These are guys that I'm willing to go to war with, and we've had such a special year, and we have a special bond as a group, and, you know, I think I'd beat myself up if I didn't give it a chance.' That chance came only after what Haliburton termed 'an honest conversation' with Carlisle. 'You know, if I didn't look like myself and was hurting the team, like, sit me down,' Haliburton said. 'Obviously, I want to be on the floor. But I want to win more than anything … like I said, if I can walk, I want to be out there.' Advertisement And so, after two more days of round-the-clock treatment that he said Saturday left him 'pretty much in the same standpoint I was before Game 6 — a little stiff, a little sore, Haliburton was out there to start Game 7: the ultimate competitive crucible, the proving ground for the immortals, the situation Haliburton said he'd 'dreamed of being in [for] my whole life.' And he was throwing flames. Five shots in the first five minutes — an extremely aggressive start for a player at times derided for his pass-first play. Nine points on three deep triples to stake the visiting Pacers to an early lead. Confident, sneering; the wolf at the door. And then, midway through the first, Haliburton caught a pass, planted to try to drive, slipped, hit the ground and lost the ball … and he knew. Advertisement Knew from the second he made impact. Slapping the floor, again and again; burying his face in his forearm; grimacing, crying, screaming no, no, no. He couldn't walk. He couldn't be out there. 'I couldn't imagine playing the biggest game of my life and something like that happening,' Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. 'It's not fair. But competition isn't fair sometimes.' At halftime, Haliburton's father, John, confirmed to ESPN's Lisa Salters the worst-case scenario diagnosis that everyone from NBA superstars to fans on their couches had immediately made: It was the Achilles, and while we don't know yet the severity of the injury, it was impossible not to think of Kevin Durant, and Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum, and the miserable gnawing left in the pits of our stomachs as we watched them first writhe, then hobble, off the floor and out of sight. Advertisement The Pacers fought like champions after losing their heart and soul, rallying to take a 48-47 lead into halftime — where, Carlisle said, Haliburton 'was in the locker room, and he was very much a part of a group that believed that they could do this.' (Asked later what Haliburton said to the team at that time, though, Pacers center Myles Turner said, 'Tyrese was getting medical attention at halftime.') Indiana couldn't sustain that surge of adrenaline, though, scoring just 20 points in 23 possessions in the third quarter and committing eight turnovers leading to 18 Thunder points. It was a stretch that laid bare just how badly these Pacers need Haliburton — how everything Indiana is on the offensive end flows from him and through him, and how, without his visionary pace-pushing playmaking, the Pacers just aren't the Pacers — and one that blew Game 7 wide open, sending Oklahoma City on the way to the NBA championship. Haliburton couldn't walk; he couldn't be out there. But, with the aid of crutches, he could greet his teammates after the game, congratulating them on a race well run, offering what he could in one of the darkest moments of all of their careers. 'That's who he is as a person, a teammate,' said backup point guard T.J. McConnell, who tried his damnedest to pick up the slack in Haliburton's absence, scoring 16 points with six rebounds and three assists off the bench. 'He put his ego aside constantly. He could have been in the locker room feeling sorry for himself after something like that happened, but he wasn't. He was up greeting us. A lot of us were hurting from the loss, and he was up there consoling us. That's who Tyrese Haliburton is. He's just the greatest, man.' Advertisement Haliburton spent the last two months captivating the basketball-watching world, delivering moment after moment, hitting some of the greatest clutch shots we've ever seen in the postseason — building a résumé as one of the premier crunch-time assassins the NBA's ever seen in real time. He deserved a better ending than this; the Pacers, their fans, all of us deserved a better ending than this. But competition isn't fair sometimes. 'What happened with Tyrese, all of our hearts dropped,' Carlisle said. 'But he will be back. I don't have any medical information about what may or may not have happened, but he'll be back in time, and I believe he'll make a full recovery.' Haliburton turns 26 in February and is still just approaching his prime; as a big guard whose game is built on his processing speed, passing touch and 3-point shooting, it seems reasonable to be optimistic about his chances of remaining a highly effective player when he returns to the court. The question now hanging over the Pacers' franchise, though: When will he make that return? And what will the team look like when he does? Heading into Game 7, Indiana appeared to be poised for an extended run of contention at the top of an Eastern Conference that figures to be in flux. The Celtics, still reeling from the loss of Tatum, could find themselves needing to shed talent to pare down a staggering luxury tax bill. The Bucks, likewise, will be without Lillard, and enter yet another summer facing existential questions surrounding the prospect of trading Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Knicks just fired the head coach who brought them to the Eastern Conference finals, and have yet to hire his replacement. It remains to be seen whether the Cavaliers will change course after winning 64 games but again failing to advance past the second round — thanks largely to Haliburton and these Pacers. There is no clear and dominant force in the East — no skyscraping juggernaut standing in the way of a team whose relentlessly frenetic style had made them the conference's unsolvable equation. And the Pacers, fresh off consecutive Eastern Conference finals berths and a trip to the NBA Finals, already have nine of their top 10 players locked in for next season, with plenty of pre-free-agency reporting suggesting that ownership's willing to finally go into the luxury tax to retain the 10th — starting center Turner, the floor-spacing 5 who helps unlock Haliburton's freewheeling playmaking and who defended like an absolute demon against Oklahoma City. Advertisement Maybe that's still ownership's plan. Maybe Pacers brass looks at what'll be left in the cupboard while Haliburton rehabs — Pascal Siakam, an absolute dynamo in this postseason; a ton of young talent (Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin, Ben Sheppard, Jarace Walker, rising sophomore Johnny Furphy) with room to grow; Carlisle, who just burnished his reputation as one of the game's premier tacticians — and thinks that, with a returning Turner, Indiana still has a chance to make the playoffs for the third straight season, give its rabid hometown fans a team worth showing up to support, and hold down the fort until its signature star can return to lead a roster built on continuity and what Turner famously called 'the power of friendship.' If they take a more jaundiced view, though, and come away thinking that a team built to very exacting specifications cannot properly function without its very particular pilot … well, organizations have made decisions to pivot — to trade present-tense contributors for future assets or financial flexibility reflecting a substantially changed competitive timeline — based on a hell of a lot less. That's the cruel trick of it all, the devastating dislocation of a moment like Haliburton and the Pacers experienced midway through the first quarter on Sunday: that these opportunities are so rare, so fleeting, so difficult to put yourself in position to grasp, and when one slips through your fingers, or is wrested away from you by fickle fate, it can be so, so difficult to get back. 'Chuck Daly once said: If people had any idea how difficult it was to win one game in the NBA — in the regular season, one game — you know, they would be shocked,' Carlisle said after Game 6. '... Not everybody's been deep in the playoffs or to the Finals. But I guarantee you that people have a very good idea what goes on, and how difficult it is to get here, and how challenging it is.' Advertisement That's why Siakam, who won an NBA championship in his third season and wandered for the next six years in search of a shot at a second, spent the last two months telling his teammates and the media that he wasn't going to take this opportunity for granted. That's why Carlisle consistently refused to look back at the past or forward into the future in his news conferences, repeatedly snapping his and his team's focus back to the present, to the process, to the pursuit of this one singular goal. That's why Haliburton was willing to do whatever he could to put himself in position to seize his opportunity. 'We've got one game,' Haliburton said after Game 6. 'One game. Nothing that's happened before matters, and nothing that's going to happen after matters. It's all about that one game.' After that game, though, the sun still rises and you have to face tomorrow. And that's why what happened on Sunday night — not just losing that one game, but losing Haliburton, maybe for an entire year; losing this opportunity without any promise that a franchise that's yet to win an NBA championship will ever see another — hurts so, so much.

USA Today

38 minutes ago

• USA Today

Alex Caruso disses Lakers' 2020 championship: 'Now I got a real one'

Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso is an NBA champion once again. On Sunday, his Oklahoma City Thunder outlasted the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and claimed the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Caruso was instrumental throughout the playoffs, just as he was when he won it all with the Lakers in 2020. His stats are usually modest, but he makes an impact that goes well beyond those numbers, not just on the defensive end but in multiple facets of the game. On Sunday, he scored 10 points and added three rebounds, three steals and one block in 32 minutes off the bench. As much as anyone, he has embodied a Thunder defense that people are calling historically great. Following Sunday's victory, Caruso seemed to throw shade at the ring he earned with the Purple and Gold inside of the Walt Disney World Resort bubble. 'Yeah, now I got a real one. Now nobody can say anything. Yeah, I think just because of the way the team is constructed now versus the team I had in 2020, like it was much harder with this team just because of the experience, right? And everybody talked about you need experience, win a championship, and you need this, that, and the other. And I said multiple times through the postseason with this team that the good basketball is good basketball, winning basketball is winning basketball. And the best team can win no matter what happens if you go out there and execute and do the stuff that you need to do to win the game. And I think through the playoffs, this team grew up and learned on the fly, which most teams have to learn through losses and learn through defeat. And I think this team learned through success.' Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completed a sensational season by being named the NBA Finals MVP. He had previously won the regular-season MVP and the scoring title, making him just the fourth player ever to attain all three accomplishments in the same season. Caruso was asked about Gilgeous-Alexander's potential to be the face of the NBA, just as LeBron James was or has been for many years. While he said Gilgeous-Alexander could be the face of the league, he stopped short of comparing the newly minted MVP to James. "Comparing to LeBron is a crazy start just 'cause LeBron was anointed at 18 years old and surpassed everything that has ever been put in front of him," Caruso said. "As far as face of the league and best player on best team, SGA's got that capability." Lakers fans have undoubtedly experienced withdrawal symptoms watching Caruso throughout the playoffs. He left L.A. in the summer of 2021 in free agency after the team unsuccessfully haggled with him over a couple of extra million dollars a year. It was one of several blunders by executive Rob Pelinka that offseason, which essentially dismantled the 2020 championship team and plunged the franchise into purgatory for most of the last four years.

New York Times

an hour ago

• New York Times

Tyrese Haliburton's injury obscures the Pacers' magical run — and their future

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Indiana Pacers were never even supposed to reach the NBA Finals. That's how the vast majority of prognosticators and fans saw it. That spot atop the Eastern Conference was supposed to belong to the defending champs in Boston or the Cleveland Cavaliers squad that won 64 games in the regular season. But by the time Game 1 had ended, when Tyrese Haliburton silenced the Oklahoma City Thunder's 'Loud City' crowd with a midrange game-winner from the right side with 0.3 seconds left, there was suddenly hope that they might be able to win the whole thing. Advertisement It was there for all to see in the hallways of Paycom Center after the game. As the Pacers celebrated en route to their locker room, their longtime president of basketball operations, Kevin Pritchard, spotted ESPN analyst and former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers amid the mass of people. 'Y'all had it f—ing figured out at halftime!' he hollered at Myers, who had said during halftime that the Pacers had no chance of winning the title if their sloppy play to start the series was any indication. 'You had 19 turnovers!' he shouted back at Pritchard with a smile. They had somehow survived in the opener — largely because they had just four turnovers in the second half. It was yet another reminder of how incredibly far the Pacers had come from a 10-15 start to their season, a journey that would take them all the way to Game 7, against a Thunder team that was a prohibitive favorite to win the title. And then, basketball proved how cruel it can be. Indiana's season ended Sunday with Oklahoma City's 103-91 win, made much harder to stomach after a sickening injury to star guard Tyrese Haliburton. A team so close to a title now has little idea of what awaits it next year. After getting off to a great start with three 3-pointers in the first quarter of Game 7 Sunday, Haliburton tried to blow by a recovering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to get to the rim. Except his right lower leg remained planted on the court. He went down in a heap after losing the ball, and as the play continued at the other end of the court, he pounded the floor at Paycom Center in frustration. Haliburton was carried off the court, his and his team's immediate future in doubt. When the Pacers left the floor after their Cinderella season was over, they were greeted by Haliburton at the door of the visitors' locker room. He stood there on crutches, with the hood of his Pacers sweatshirt pulled over his head and a towel around his neck, sharing his appreciation as they did the same in return. Tyrese Haliburton made sure to show love to his teammates in the hallway after the game 🥺 — DraftKings (@DraftKings) June 23, 2025 'What happened with Tyrese is, all of our hearts dropped,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen. And did it as one of 17 (players). That's the beautiful thing about him.' Advertisement James Johnson, the Pacers' veteran forward who rarely plays but is the team's resident protector, helped carry Haliburton off the floor. 'That was heartbreaking,' he said. 'I know how hard he works, how bad he wanted it, and I know the hours he puts in, day in and day out. … Just to even be here was an honor, to sit courtside and help cheer on these guys was an honor, man. There's a group character that's hard to find. KP (Pritchard) and (Pacers general manager) Chad (Buchanan) did a great job of putting this group together, and getting high-character guys.' That the Pacers lost the title to Oklahoma City on Sunday almost felt secondary when compared to the injury to their franchise player. Haliburton suffered an Achilles tendon injury, according to his father, John, as relayed by the ESPN broadcast. The injury is to the same leg he'd suffered a strained calf muscle just a few days earlier. Assuming that's correct, Tyrese would likely miss all of the 2025-26 season. It threw what had been a brilliantly executed piece of short- and long-term roster construction into chaos. Haliburton, the player who management and Carlisle had believed could be the centerpiece of a contender when they acquired him at the trade deadline in 2022, is Indiana's lodestar. The cost of getting him was center Domantas Sabonis, a two-time All-Star with the Pacers and a popular player among fans. But Haliburton had a quality as a playmaker and scorer that intrigued the Pacers. Indiana didn't hesitate to give him a five-year, $260 million deal in 2023. The injury made what Haliburton said late in the regular season about the fleeting nature of contending in the league all the more poignant. 'I think we're just trying to hold onto that (core group) as long as we can,' Haliburton said. 'Because you see a lot of teams in the NBA, especially with the cap room and all that, the new CBA and all that stuff, the odds of us keeping this group together forever aren't very high. We know guys have to get paid and all that. So we're just cherishing the moment while we can, and trying to keep our core together as long as we can, and trying to do special things.' Advertisement But how can the Pacers overcome this? In the short term, it seems impossible. The Pacers had been set up for a two- or three-year window with their core group, while many of their potential opponents in the East faced either significant injuries to key players or, in the case of the New York Knicks, the fallout from players after firing a popular coach. Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, sixth-man extraordinaire T.J. McConnell and reserve forward Obi Toppin are all signed through the 2027-28 season. (McConnell has a partial guarantee of $5 million in the final year of his deal.) Forward Aaron Nesmith is signed through 2027. Bennedict Mathurin, another contributor off the bench, and fourth-year forward Isaiah Jackson, who missed most of this season after his own Achilles tear, will be restricted free agents this summer. Mathurin had some big moments in the postseason, so he potentially could have some suitors. But there's no replacing Haliburton's rare abilities and face-of-the-franchise qualities, even as Indiana's front office, led by Pritchard and Buchanan, built a championship-level franchise around him — despite never having a top-five pick. Nembhard was a 2022 second-round pick, a pick Indiana acquired from Cleveland, the day before the Pacers got Haliburton from Sacramento, in a trade for Caris LeVert. The Pacers got Siakam from Toronto, in part, by not letting one of their few mistakes linger; they traded Bruce Brown — a high-profile free agent signing for them in 2023 (two years, $45 million) — in the package for Siakam, after Brown played just half a season in Indiana. The Pacers are also a mid-market franchise. Brown aside, they know that most free agents don't flock to Indianapolis to set up shop. Yet Indiana has refused to tank over the years — decades — as it fielded mostly good but rarely great teams. The challenge now, in the wake of both Haliburton's injury and a two-year run where Indiana has been a final four and final two franchise, is to see if this is sustainable, with or without the team's superstar. Indiana has traditionally stayed shy of the luxury-tax line over the years; per Spotrac, the Pacers haven't paid the tax since 2005, when they paid $4.67 million. Advertisement But to re-sign free agent veteran center Myles Turner, who's become one of the team's key mainstays, Indiana will almost certainly have to be a taxpayer next season. The 29-year-old Turner is the top center available this summer in free agency, but the expectation from all concerned is that Indiana will be willing to pay the $30 million or so annually to keep him, even if it pushes Indiana into the first apron of the tax. Turner struggled mightily in these finals, averaging just 10.6 points (37.7 percent overall, 21.7 from 3), 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks, but he shared his fond memories of their unexpected run afterward. 'It was special,' he said. 'Just everything we've been through to get to this point, everything that went into it … a journey at that. We talk about the process a lot, not necessarily the end goal, but the process. I'm going to miss the process of this group.' Unfortunately, like the Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks — who also had star players (Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard, respectively) go down during the postseason with Achilles injuries — Indiana may face a 'gap season' of sorts in 2025-26 if Haliburton misses most or all of the season. But the Pacers have long been loath to tank in hopes of adding to their roster over the decades, and it's hard to see them doing so next season, even if they have to play without their superstar. 'There's nothing wrong with high expectations,' Carlisle, who is 10th among coaches in career postseason wins and 11th in regular-season victories, said during the season. 'What you don't want is a situation of apathy, where expectations are low and all you're ever doing is selling hope. That's not why I came here, that's not why Kevin Pritchard is doing his job and that's not what our ownership is about.' Without Haliburton, the Pacers will have to be even more precise with their drafts and trades. They traded their 2025 first-rounder last week to the Pelicans to get their 2026 first-rounder back from New Orleans. That could potentially be back in play if Indiana wants to get back into the first round of this year's draft. Indiana could also, potentially, apply for an injured player exception that would allow the Pacers to sign a free agent for half of Haliburton's $45.5 million salary for next season. Teams are awarded such exceptions if a league physician determines a player's injury will force him to miss the remainder of a season. Indiana would have between July 1 and next Jan. 15 to apply for the exception. Haliburton sat at his locker before Game 5 of Indiana's second-round series against Cleveland. A television nearby was playing the Cleveland Guardians-Milwaukee Brewers game as a calm Haliburton discussed baseball with two Rocket Arena locker room attendants. The conversation turned to Cincinnati Reds sensation Elly de la Cruz, and one of the attendants informed Haliburton that the Reds would be in town later that week. Advertisement 'We're not coming back to Cleveland,' Haliburton said. That bravado — hubris? — is a key part of the Haliburton brand. As such, it's a key part of Indiana's identity as well. He capped an improbable 8-0 run in the final 40 seconds of Game 5 of Indiana's first-round series against Milwaukee with a driving layup past Giannis Antetokounmpo, giving the Pacers a 119-118 win and a 4-1 series victory. In Game 2 of the Cavs series, when Haliburton grabbed an offensive rebound off his own missed free throw with 12.4 seconds left, and Indiana down two, he dribbled straight back behind the 3-point line and splashed a game-winning triple over Cleveland's Ty Jerome for a 120-119 win. Against the Knicks in Game 1 of the conference finals, Haliburton's last-second jumper tied the game at the end of regulation, and Indiana won it in overtime. And in Game 1 of the finals, after an awful night shooting, Haliburton nonetheless hit that pull-up over Cason Wallace for a one-point Indiana victory. It wasn't happenstance or coincidence that Haliburton had the autonomy to freelance in such game-winning moments. Carlisle, famously, has throttled back on the micromanaging that often defined his earlier head coaching jobs in Detroit and Indiana, after being on Larry Bird's bench as his assistant during Bird's three seasons as head coach. Carlisle's championship run in Dallas had shown him he had to let his players make decisions in real time, in clutch moments, rather than trying to dictate from the bench. That was a central tenet of these Pacers. 'We have a passion and a pride in this organization and what we're building here,' Haliburton had said at the end of the regular season. ''Cause we feel like we built it. We feel like this is something that's been very player-led. We feel like our front office and our coaching staff did a great job of giving us the tools, but they really allow us to experiment and be ourselves. So we take pride in this.' After his team drubbed the Cavaliers in Game 4 of that series, shredding a 3-2 zone that flummoxed Indiana in Game 3, Carlisle sat in his office with a longtime friend from back home, fielding questions from a reporter about how he'd helped Haliburton realize who he is and who he's becoming in the league. Advertisement Haliburton had to address not just the pressure of the playoffs, but the fallout from being the most common pick when his peers were asked who the most overrated player in the league is for The Athletic's annual anonymous player poll. And after the Pacers closed out Milwaukee in Game 5, Antetokounmpo chastised Haliburton's father, John, for getting into the Greek Freak's face after the final buzzer sounded. 'One thing that you've got to understand about a young player who's experiencing the limelight for the first time is that there's certain things that he simply has to experience to learn about,' Carlisle said. 'I try to give him clues as to what he should be thinking. I try to give him direction. But I also say to him, 'Part of this is you've got to go through this. You've got to learn about it. And you've got to figure out your best way to deal with it — no matter what it is.'' Haliburton showed his grit, coming back from a strained calf in Game 5 to provide heroic moments for the Pacers three nights later in Game 6. Now, unfortunately, both Haliburton and the Pacers have much more pressing questions to face in the coming months, the basketball gods having ripped asunder in a few shattering moments what had taken years to so carefully construct. (Top photo of Tyrese Haliburton: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)