Kawakami: Tyrese Haliburton, the Warriors and the 2020 draft — a story of what could’ve been (2025)

Yes, three and a half years later, Tyrese Haliburton remembers every detail and swish of his pre-draft workout in Las Vegas in front of Warriors owner Joe Lacob, coach Steve Kerr and then-general manager Bob Myers.

It was in a private gym, set up just for this because the Warriors held the No. 2 pick in the draft and had Haliburton on the shortlist. And Haliburton let himself ponder the possibility, just a little bit, of landing with a team that had Stephen Curry and won three of the previous six championships.

“Yeah, I did,” Haliburton told me in a phone interview this week. “I was disappointed that they (had) the No. 2 pick because I felt like if they were anywhere out of the top three, I felt like I was going to be the pick.”

But if any workout could change up the consensus top tier of Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, it might’ve been that one.

“That workout was like the best workout probably of my life,” Haliburton said. “Felt like I shot the cover off the ball. But I understood at the time there was no way they were going to take me at 2.”

You know what happened: After Minnesota took Edwards No. 1, the Warriors stuck with the consensus and selected Wiseman, going with the electric 7-footer in a relatively clear call over Ball, the creative guard who ended up going No. 3 to Charlotte. That did not turn out well for the Warriors or Wiseman, who had a fitful two-plus seasons with the franchise then was traded to Detroit last February in a four-team trade that brought Gary Payton II back to Golden State.

Haliburton, meanwhile, was selected 12th by Sacramento, impressed early with the Kings then was traded to Indiana in February 2022 in a package for Domantas Sabonis. From there, Haliburton has continuously elevated his game — he was an All-Star last season and currently leads the league in assists per game on the highest-scoring team in the league, which puts him on a possible track for All-NBA honors.

I didn’t reach out to Haliburton to talk about his Warriors workout and interview back in 2020. First and foremost, I talked to him about his good friendship with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, which dates back to when they were freshmen together at Iowa State. But during ESPN’s coverage of the In-Season Tournament’s final rounds in Las Vegas, Myers talked about that Warriors workout, so it was natural to delve a little deeper into that moment.

“That workout was a few miles from here in Vegas,” Myers said on the broadcast. “Myself, Steve Kerr, Joe Lacob and he did what he does. He made a ton of shots and we looked at each other and said, ‘He might be pretty good.’ Different kind of shot, kind of a set shot, but he made them all. …

“What bothers me more than anything was his workout was good, (but) when we met with him after, I should have known then because of how he is as a person and as a leader. Because you meet with people, you talk to them. But that conversation left a mark because of how smart he is and how confident. It’s not fake, it’s not arrogant, it’s confidence.”

That’s just how Kerr remembers the day with Haliburton, too.

“It was basically 1-on-0, so he wasn’t playing live,” Kerr said Thursday. “But he was shooting, and he shot the lights out. You could tell he was a great shooter. But a very distinct rhythm. His shot is not textbook, a little bit of push shot, he’s got some left thumb in there. So when you saw him on tape, you hoped it would translate. And then when you watched him live, it was, oh yeah, this will translate.

“The most impressive thing was the interview after. It wasn’t the workout itself. It’s hard to gauge much of anything in a 1-on-0 workout. But the interview after, he just … he was a pro. You could just tell. He was mature and loved the game, talked details about our team. I know we had a lot of people in our front office, the analytics department, who loved him. So he was high on our list.”

The Warriors were far from the only team to pass on Haliburton and end up with a much less productive player, of course. The Pistons took Killian Hayes seventh, the Wizards took Deni Avdija ninth and the Suns took Jalen Smith 10th. But Wiseman flamed out so quickly and Haliburton has been so good, it’s hard not to wonder how close the Warriors might’ve been to a whole other kind of decision with that pick.

Would the Warriors have taken Haliburton if they had the fourth pick instead of No. 2? I think Haliburton is right, they probably would’ve. But that’s easy to say now. A Warriors executive mentioned recently that they know now that they should’ve tried to trade down a few slots and take Haliburton. But the exec admitted that’s totally with 20/20 hindsight. Nobody at the time was thinking Haliburton could go that high. You can say in retrospect that he should’ve and that Wiseman absolutely should not have, but that was just not the way it was ordered back in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Warriors were intrigued by Wiseman’s unique physical skills and the chance he’d super-charge their system with his ability to play above the rim. The Warriors also were impressed by Wiseman’s character and personality. But it just didn’t work out. And Haliburton is turning into a superstar.

“Everybody’s got stories like this, every draft, you see cases like this, you’re thinking upside and talent …,” Kerr said. “That’s why it’s just like quarterbacks in the NFL, that’s why there’s so many high picks in the NBA that don’t turn out, because a lot of it is speculation. But it’s the nature of the game.”

Teams can’t go back in time. They try to make the best decisions possible and make whatever adjustments are necessary from there. And despite the Wiseman pick, the Warriors won their fourth championship of this era the next season. Do they wish they’d taken Haliburton? Oh yes. But that does them no good now.

“I think he was ranked fourth on our board,” Kerr said. “Bob would know better than me. He was four or five, somewhere in there. I’m happy for him. I got to coach him this past summer with Team USA. Might coach him again next summer (in the Olympics).”

The larger point is that nobody gets it perfect every time. And in fact, the Warriors have lived quite well over the years by jumping in when other teams have made some pretty large drafting mistakes right in front of them, particularly when Curry dropped to No. 7 in 2009, Klay Thompson to 11th in 2011 and Draymond Green to 35th in 2012.

“You think about our team this past decade, this dynasty was built on 7, 11 and, what was Draymond? 35,” Kerr said. “Andre (Iguodala) was 9 (by Philadelphia in 2004). And so when you really look at this stuff, it’s so hard to predict. If anybody could’ve predicted that Draymond would’ve been Draymond, he obviously wouldn’t have gone 35th. …

“It’s just really hard. I was a GM in Phoenix, not a very good one, and about the only thing I ever got right was trying to trade for Steph (during the 2009 draft). And I wasn’t able to make it happen. Evaluating players and figuring out who’s going to be great and who’s going to work out and who’s not, to me, is the hardest job there is in management and coaching.”

Which Haliburton, for one, fully understands. Doesn’t stop him from daydreaming, just like Warriors fans, just a bit about what life would’ve been like alongside Curry, Klay and Draymond. But he understands and is happy to be where he’s at.

“I hold no ill will towards them, but yeah, it definitely would’ve been a good fit,” Haliburton said of the Warriors. “But hey, they won a championship the next year, so I’m sure they’re not regretting it too much.”

(Photo of Haliburton and Steve Kerr during the 2023 FIBA World Cup: Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images)