https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article247300064.html
“People are like, ‘How did Haliburton fall so far? How did Avdija fall so far?’” Givony said. “A lot of this was by design. The consistent theme that I kept hearing in the predraft process from agents was, ‘I hate the teams that are drafting in the top 10. I don’t want my guys with any of those franchises.’
“And so they were very selective with who got medicals and they were openly telling teams, ‘Don’t take my guy, please.’ So I think that is a big reason why Haliburton ended up going 12th. He could have gone sixth, I think, had he wanted to, but he was open to, you know, ‘Let me sacrifice seven, eight million dollars, because I think it’s going to end up working out for me in the long term in Sacramento.’ And Zach, how many times can you say a player wants to go to Sacramento? It’s incredible.”