Pacers Believe Tyrese Haliburton Will Be Ready for Opening Night After Year-Long Absence

The Indiana Pacers might not have to wait much longer to see their franchise player back on the floor. Chris Haynes reported during Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast of Indiana’s Summer League game against the Philadelphia 76ers that the team is increasingly confident Tyrese Haliburton will be available for the start of the 2026-27 regular season. That comes after he missed all of last year with a ruptured Achilles.

“Tyrese Haliburton, as we know, suffered a gruesome Achilles injury, an Achilles tear, during Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. He sat out all of last season, but there is good news. League sources have informed me that the Indiana Pacers are extremely optimistic that Haliburton will be available for day one of the season opener for the 26-27 season,” Haynes said.

That is a huge deal for a team that went 19-63 last season. That was the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. Without their All-Star point guard, the Pacers basically spent the year in a holding pattern. They just didn’t have the firepower or the playmaking to keep up with anyone.

Before the injury, Haliburton was the engine behind Indiana’s run to the 2025 NBA Finals. The Pacers pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to a Game 7. Haliburton was playing some of the best basketball of his career in those playoffs. Over 23 postseason games, he averaged 17.0 points, 8.6 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 46.0% from the field, 34.0% from deep and 86.3% from the free-throw line.

Then came that moment in the Finals. Just minutes into Game 7, he went down with a torn right Achilles. Had to leave the floor. Without him, the Pacers couldn’t finish the job. They lost the game and the title, and then they lost the whole next season trying to piece things back together without him.

Now there is real hope that the rebuild is over before it really even got started. If Haliburton comes back healthy, Indiana could jump right back into the mix in the Eastern Conference. The East is stacked. Boston is still a monster. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, New York, they all have stars. But a healthy Haliburton with a year of rest and a young supporting cast might be enough to make things interesting again.