This isn’t a surprise, but the Pacers’ President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard made it official on Monday.
Tyrese Haliburton will not play next season for the Indiana Pacers, Pritchard said.
Haliburton tore his Achilles minutes into Game 7 of the NBA Finals, a heartbreaking end to his season and a magical Pacers run. With advances in surgical techniques and recovery protocols for Achilles surgery, some players have been able to return to play after nine months. If he pushed for that timeline, it would optimistically have Haliburton back with a few weeks left in the season. Pritchard and the Pacers would rather get their star point guard, who just led them to the NBA Finals, fully healthy, than regroup for the 2026-27 season.
Haliburton averaged 18.6 points and 9.2 assists a game last season as the driver of the Pacers’ up-tempo offense. In the playoffs, he averaged 17.3 points and 8.6 assists a game, shooting 34% from beyond the arc, and orchestrating a free-flowing Pacers offense that even the elite Oklahoma City defense had trouble controlling. To be successful, the Pacers need Haliburton to return to playing at that elite level, rather than trying to find his conditioning and timing after a long layoff. Indiana is right to take the pressure off next season and think about the long term with Haliburton.
In that same press conference, Pritchard said the Pacers intend to re-sign center James Wiseman as a reserve center. A year ago, the Pacers signed Wiseman to a two-year contract, then he tore his Achilles in the first game of the regular season. At the deadline, Indiana traded him to Toronto, which waived him. The Pacers can re-sign him to a minimum deal, and Wiseman should be healthy for the start of the season. He would play behind Jay Huff, whom the Pacers traded for this offseason to be a stretch five now that Myles Turner is in Milwaukee.
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