NBA Analyst Still Believes Pacers Can Be Title Contender Despite 4-8 Start

The Indiana Pacers are 4-8 after 12 games. They are in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. 

Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton has played in just four games this season after missing all of last season. Indiana is 2-2 with Hali in the lineup. 

NBA analyst Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report still believes the Pacers can be a title contender this season once Haliburton returns. We just don't know when that return will take place. 

Late November is one estimate for Halliburton's return. It isn't a date the Pacers have given, though. 

A Complex fantasy update published Wednesday projected that return window for the guard, who has a mild left hamstring strain. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle gave no set timetable in his Saturday update.

Haliburton strained his hamstring in the Oct. 26 loss at Milwaukee, 110-102. Two days later, Carlisle called him week-to-week and ruled him out for at least two weeks after the team brought in a hamstring specialist to meet with its trainers, Haliburton, and members of the front office, ESPN reported. It was not good news, but it could have been worse, Carlisle said that day.

"I don't think it is realistic that he'd play before that," Carlisle said.

The two-week mark has passed. Haliburton stayed in Indianapolis for treatment when the team went to Mexico City for its Saturday, Nov. 7 game against the Denver Nuggets, a 114-102 loss. Carlisle said that Friday he was hopeful Haliburton would be back very soon, per Hoops Rumors' roundup, which cited Pacers sideline reporter Jeremiah Johnson.

"Unfortunately, (Tyrese) is not able to be here. He sends his regards to Mexico," Carlisle said. "He is very disappointed he couldn't make it but it is better for his rehab to stay at home, to be in the hyperbaric (chamber), and do all the treatments."

On Saturday, Carlisle told The Indianapolis Star's Dustin Dopirak there was no set return date.

"He's making great progress. I don't know a timetable. … The timetable is uncertain," Carlisle said.

Haliburton's Oct. 21 game at New Orleans was his first since tearing his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Indiana won 123-120. He averaged 21.8 points in his four games back, with wins over New Orleans and Brooklyn and losses to Dallas and Milwaukee. The Pacers had won just 19 games without him last season. That was the fewest in franchise history, according to ESPN.

The left hamstring has bothered him before. In 2023-24, he missed 10 regular-season games with a strain and then sat out Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston after aggravating it. He made the All-NBA Third Team the next season.

Andrew Nembhard has started at point guard, with Braden Smith and Quenton Jackson taking backup minutes. T.J. McConnell returned Saturday in Mexico City after missing the first nine games with a right hamstring strain.

Ben Sheppard is expected to miss months with a torn left meniscus, and Johnny Furphy had surgery on his right ACL. Ivica Zubac sat out the Oct. 28 game against Philadelphia with a left ankle sprain. Larry Nance Jr. and Aaron Nesmith have also lost time this season.