Tyrese Haliburton’s Return Isn’t the Only Question Mark the Pacers Face This Season

How Tyrese Haliburton looks in his return from an Achilles injury is merely one of two big questions facing the Pacers, an NBA scout says.

How Tyrese Haliburton looks in his return from an Achilles injury is merely one of two big questions facing the Pacers. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Last season was a bad one for the Pacers across the board. But a new dawn arrives this month.

Indiana was shell-shocked and set back significantly by the Achilles injury Tyrese Haliburton suffered in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. It knocked the star point guard out of the 2025–26 campaign and sent the franchise into an unwanted, unexpected gap year that saw Indy go 19–63.

But Haliburton is recovered and ready to go. Will it be enough to elevate the Pacers back to contender status after a year hanging out at the bottom of the standings?

“I don't know if they're just going to jump right back to where they were before Haliburton’s injury,” an NBA scout told Sports Illustrated. “I think they'll be good, but it's just going to be like, how does Tyrese come back? And (Ivica) Zubac, how will they utilize him? Rick Carlisle's a great coach that will figure it out. They'll run new stuff.”

On the one hand, Indiana returns most of the key players who contributed to that unexpected Finals run. Haliburton is the straw that stirs the drink but Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard remain in place as key role players around the star point guard. And if their talent meshes in Carlisle’s system, it will give the team the same edge we saw in 2025.

But there will be one big difference from the last time Haliburton took the floor: the starting center. When the Pacers fell to the Thunder, Myles Turner held down the five-spot, but he departed in free agency that summer. Indiana decided to replace him by trading for Zubac, the above-mentioned center who spent the first eight years of his career playing for the Clippers. The veteran big man is a good player—but a very different one from Turner, who boasted the rare skillset of deep shooting and shot-blocking as a center. Zubac is more of a traditional seven-footer who sets concrete picks and crashes the glass with reckless abandon.

As a result, the Pacers’ style will look a lot different this season with Haliburton once again running the show. The NBA scout who spoke to SI isn’t sure how well it’s going to work out, but Indy’s personnel is better-suited to providing the space Zubac will need to make an impact.

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“The problem Zubac had in Clipperland was he just clogged up the paint,” the scout said. “The Clippers were better when he was hurt and not playing. He's a great center and I guess he'll be better for Indiana than he was with the Clippers because those guys in Indiana are shooters. Haliburton will be taking the step-back three. He's not James Harden or Kawhi Leonard playing in the paint, mid-range, where it’s clogged up. The Pacers’ wings are shooting threes. That will help. 

“Turner was more perimeter-oriented. Zubac's more low-block, but they're going to have to change what they do and how they do it. So if he plays well with Haliburton, then yeah, they'll make something work. But I don't know. I don't see Zubac as a pick-and-roll guy. He's a low post guy. And Haliburton needs someone to play pick-and-roll.”

Offseason recap

Zubac represents the biggest talent addition for the Pacers since Haliburton’s injury. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

• Who’s in: Kelly Oubre Jr., Larry Nance Jr., Braden Smith
• Who’s out: Micah Potter

The Pacers’ biggest roster moves happened over the course of last season, which didn’t leave much room for summertime additions. The Zubac trade was executed in February and cost Indiana two first-round picks, a second-round pick, Benedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson. One of those two firsts was conveyed during the 2026 draft, leaving the Pacers with only one second-round pick; they used it on former Purdue standout point guard Braden Smith, signed to a two-way contract for this season.

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Otherwise the Pacers added Oubre and Nance in free agency. Oubre spent last season with the 76ers and signed on for $16.5 million over two years to suit up alongside Haliburton and Co. Nance put in some solid minutes as an end-of-bench big man in Cleveland last season and inked a one-year deal to spend this season with Indiana as a depth piece.

SI’s prediction for the 2026–27 Pacers

• Record: 43–49 | Predicting the 2026–27 NBA Standings: Which Teams Will Rise, Fall and Surprise?

A stiff East loaded with stars makes a path to the postseason a tricky one for these Pacers. Nobody is eager to see Haliburton or his fast-paced style in a seven-game postseason series, but there are questions abound regarding the team surrounding him and how everyone will fare over the 82-game regular season.

Haliburton will probably need a runway to get back to his old form as he figures out how best to play with a paint-bound center like Zubac. Carlisle has to figure out where the bench production will come from after the front office traded away Mathurin to get Zubac. Siakam can’t suffer any decline in production as he enters his age-32 season, while Nesmith and Obi Toppin have to be ready to get back to winning ways.

It’s not unrealistic to think the Pacers can do all that by the time the playoffs begin. But they’ll take plenty of lumps along the way from equally, if not more, desperate teams in the conference. And so SI’s team has Indiana finishing in the play-in tournament.

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