Tyrese Haliburton’s return is the headline the Indiana Pacers have been waiting for. After going through the entire 25-26 season without their star point guard, the franchise finally has a chance to get back to the version of itself that reached the Finals and came within a whisker of the first NBA title in team history just two years ago.
That’s the part everyone can feel. The part that’s harder to pin down is what happens next with his contract.
Indiana has made its belief in Haliburton pretty clear through actions, not just words. The front office has treated this era like one worth pushing chips into, including going all in at last year’s trade deadline for Ivica Zubac.
But when it comes to extensions, the stance gets murkier. Pacers GM Chad Buchanan has already said he has no interest in looking at any of the team’s soon-to-be extension-eligible core.
That makes Haliburton the strangest case of all. He is the player this team leans on most and trusts most, yet he is also extension-eligible with three years still left on his contract. So why would Indiana pay out again for a player who already has the biggest and longest deal on the roster?
The answer is timing.
Getting a deal done early can be a massive win if the player keeps climbing or even just stays at a similar level. Contract numbers are locked in by the money at the moment the pen hits paper, not by the cap percentage they’ll represent down the road. That means the sooner a team commits, the better the contract can look years later.
Haliburton fits that logic perfectly, for better or worse. If he comes back at his max-contract level, locking him in now would look like a bargain. But if he doesn’t return to that level, then handing out a max deal to a player who isn’t worth it becomes a brutal mistake in today’s NBA.
The league has seen how badly those bets can age. Poorly timed early extensions have wrecked more eras than teams like to admit.
John Wall is the obvious cautionary tale. He was electric, a player who could go head-to-head with prime LeBron James and turn the Wizards into a regular playoff team.
And yet his supermax, paired with injuries, helped drag Washington down. The Kentucky guard went from missing a season with a heel injury to tearing his Achilles tendon after falling down the stairs at home.
Haliburton is coming back from the same injury that effectively ended Wall’s career, and he’ll make more over the next three years than Wall made over the life of that four-year supermax.
That’s the part that may be sitting in the back of Indiana’s mind. The Pacers can say they believe in Haliburton, and they probably do. But that doesn’t mean they want to make the kind of financial commitment that could punish them if the recovery doesn’t go the way they hope.
From the front office’s point of view, the math is simple. If Haliburton gets back to full strength, waiting could cost Indiana around $10 million more per year on his next deal. If he doesn’t, and the extension is already in place, the negative value could land in the $30-40 million range.
That’s a swing big enough to make any team hesitate.
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T.J. McConnell has given the Pacers a steady veteran presence at backup point guard, but at some point Indiana will have to start thinking about life after him. Miles McBride looks like the kind of guard who could fit that role, bringing energy and depth at a position the Pacers will need to keep stocked as McConnell approaches the back end of his NBA run.
The catch is obvious enough: McBride is with the Knicks, and dealing with a direct rival is never simple. He is also looking for a contract extension, which could force New York into a difficult decision if the price gets too high, but the path from that possibility to an actual move is complicated by how rare these rival-to-rival deals tend to be. [Read more 🡒]
Tyrese Haliburton Just Changed Everything For The Pacers This Season
Tyrese Haliburton says he is fully healthy and ready for the upcoming NBA season, a significant development for a Pacers team that spent last year without its lead guard because of an Achilles tendon injury. Since signing a five-year contract extension in July 2023, Haliburton has remained central to Indianas long-term plans, and his return changes the look and feel of a roster that has been reshaped around him.
The Pacers have made several roster moves and already have a projected starting lineup for the upcoming season, but Haliburtons availability is the real pivot point for everything. He is also expected to be a starter for the team in the 2026-27 season, which underscores how much Indiana is still building with him at the center, even as the details of how quickly this group clicks remain to be seen. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Enter Camp With One Big Question Around Tyrese Haliburton
The Pacers are heading into camp with a clear sense of urgency after a 19-win season, and the conversation around the roster has already shifted from lofty goals to much more basic ones. Tyrese Haliburton, Rick Carlisle and Pascal Siakam have all framed the year around a simple idea: become a good team first, then worry about what comes after. Kelly Oubre Jr. has echoed that tone as Indiana works to reset its standard and build something more stable.
The bigger challenge is figuring out how the pieces fit now that the group is adjusting to changes in roles and playing style following Haliburtons absence. The Pacers are trying to get back to a system that once suited them, but the team knows it cannot just flip a switch and return to what it was before. For a club trying to climb out of a difficult season, the most important question may not be how high the ceiling is, but how quickly the foundation can be rebuilt. [Read more 🡒]