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Tyrese Haliburton’s “mission” is to use the Indiana Pacers’ success in the In-Season Tournament and the regular season to recruit star players to the team, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

“This is a team with salary cap space and draft picks. And [Haliburton] knows that his team president Kevin Pritchard has been really aggressive in the last year trying to chase players like Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby in Toronto, offering big trade packages for players who could become free agents in the near future.

“And what changes the equation for the Pacers now is that they know they have a Pied Piper in Tyrese Haliburton that guys are going to want to play with. And as Haliburton said to me, ‘I’m going to get you shots, I’m going to make life easy for you, and we are going to win.’

“And that is really Haliburton’s mission right now, to use this tournament, to use this season to start making the case to star players around the league, ‘Come play with me in Indiana,'” said Wojnarowski.

Haliburton had 27 points and 15 assists in leading the Pacers to the final of the In-Season Tournament against the Lakers.

Domantas Sabonis said he’s “excited” about what DeMar DeRozan will bring to the Sacramento Kings next season. Sabonis said he thinks adding DeRozan will make the Kings a more versatile team.

“I think it’s going to be good for us. It’s going to make us think differently on the court, move differently, and really read each other,” Sabonis said. “We are used to playing one style but he does something at a Hall of Fame level that we’re going to have to play around and it’s going to make it so much harder for teams to guard us because we can basically score from anywhere.”

Sabonis also said he was surprised that Sacramento was able to re-sign Malik Monk given the limitations in what the team could offer their sixth man. All around, Sabonis said the Kings offseason exceeded his expectations, especially adding DeRozan.

“Definitely [exceeded my expectations]. He’s a very smart player, has been in the league forever, and has done so much, I’m excited to learn from him and pick his brain and I hope everyone else is and everyone gets better overall.”