The Indiana Pacers got the update they have been waiting a year to hear. NBA insider Chris Haynes reported this week that league sources say Indiana is “extremely optimistic” that Tyrese Haliburton will be available for the opening night of the 2026-27 season, roughly 16 months after he tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
Head coach Rick Carlisle offered a measured version of the same optimism at Summer League. “Ty’s doing well. He’s been playing 5-on-5 for a long time,” Carlisle said. “It’s going to be a bit of a journey for him. But he’s aggressively attacking the summer.” The phrase that matters there is “5-on-5” — full-contact, full-speed work is the last box a rehabbing guard checks before he is cleared, and Haliburton is already living in it.
The injury cost Indiana its entire 2025-26 season in every sense that counts. Without their franchise point guard, the Pacers went 19-63, a hard fall for a team that had been seven quarters from a championship the previous June. The rebuild talk that followed was never really about tearing down; it was about surviving a year until the offense had its engine back.
That changes how the reshaped roster reads. Indiana added center Ivica Zubac in a midseason trade with the Clippers, signed wing Kelly Oubre Jr. to a two-year deal worth nearly $17 million, and brought in Larry Nance Jr. on a minimum contract for frontcourt depth. Those are complementary pieces — rim protection, perimeter scoring, veteran cover — and complementary pieces only make sense next to a lead creator. Haliburton’s passing is what turns Zubac into a lob threat and lets Oubre pick his spots instead of hunting shots.
None of this is guaranteed. Achilles returns are rarely linear, and Carlisle’s “bit of a journey” line is a coach leaving himself room. But a healthy Haliburton in October would move Indiana back into the Eastern Conference’s playoff conversation in a single stroke, which is not something many 19-win teams can say.
For fantasy managers, the signal is worth filing early: a healthy Haliburton is a top-of-the-draft assist source and a top-15 overall option in most formats, and any lingering discount on his name is the window to buy in both dynasty and redraft. The players around him gain, too — Zubac’s finishing and Oubre’s efficiency both climb with an elite table-setter feeding them.
