Pacers GM: We see Haliburton as hopefully 'the next Reggie Miller'

Tyrese Haliburton hasn't been with the Indiana Pacers for long, but the club's front office is optimistic he'll be the franchise's next cornerstone player.

"We're gonna build our team around him," Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan told Alex Kennedy of Basketball News. "We see him as hopefully being the next Reggie Miller. We had a Reggie Miller mural painted on a building in downtown Indianapolis, and I think our dream is that one day Tyrese will have (his own) up somewhere in downtown Indianapolis."

Haliburton excelled down the stretch after being acquired from the Sacramento Kings, averaging 17.5 points, 9.6 assists, 4.3 boards, and 1.8 steals over 26 appearances with the Pacers last season.

The Iowa State product's strong sophomore year came on the heels of a solid debut campaign during which he earned NBA All-Rookie first-team honors.

While Haliburton is still processing the Kings' shocking decision to trade him, he's thankful for the opportunity at hand with Indiana.

"If I'm being completely honest, that (trade) is such a blessing for me," Haliburton said. "It's so easy now to look at it that way, but it's a complete blessing for me to be in the situation that I'm in, to have the ability to showcase what I can do and play my natural position. It's helping me a ton.

"So, you know, it's love at the end of the day. It is what it is. Just taking a step back and self-reflecting on a lot of different things in life, I think it made me a bigger person and just have more self-awareness."