As the Indiana Pacers open training camp this week, you have questions and I have answers (sort of):
How Does Tyrese Haliburton look after missing the entire season with an Achilles surgery and a painful outbreak of the shingles (which, as someone who has dealt with the malady, I can tell you it’s absolutely miserable)?
I’m not worried about Haliburton, not in the least. He’s had eight months to recover from the torn Achilles, quite a bit longer than Daniel Jones of the Colts and the Celtics’ Jason Tatum.
I don’t sense Haliburton, the perpetually upbeat face of the franchise, is terribly concerned, either.
“So before you ask a question, I’m healthy,” Haliburton said before answering Media Day queries Monday. “I’m 100%. There will be no restrictions. That is not news. There is no source. I am the source. I’m ready to go for the year.”
Well, that settles that.
There will be no load management, no ramp-up period to get Haliburton’s legs under him, although Rick Carlisle said the medical group will watch him closely. He’s full-go from Day One of camp Tuesday.
That said, it’s been a full year since Haliburton’s devastating injury in the early minutes of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and as much as you want to scrimmage, play full-court five on five and all the rest, there’s no true way to replicate the speed and physicality of NBA basketball without experiencing it once again. What I’m saying is, it might take a while before Haliburton is completely up to speed.
“When you get to the NBA game, there’s always going to be some adjustment period in terms of conditioning or some of the things you can’t simulate in practice,” Pascal Siakam said of Haliburton. “So I think there’s going to be some of that. We expect him to be great, but at the same time, we’ve got to give him some grace.”
Said Rick Carlisle: “You don’t realize how important one player can be until you are without that player for a significant period of time. Our team is very much built as an ecosystem with all the parts dependent on one another.”
The most important part is Haliburton, the head of the snake for a team fully reliant on many skills. It’s no wonder the Pacers fell off the cliff last season, playing short-handed, utilizing no less than seven players on hardship contracts.
It was a brutal offseason for Haliburton, who was thrilled this summer to take vacation in Cabo San Lucas, only to break down in tears when he realized what a struggle it was to navigate the condo stairs and other limitations.
“It was hard for me to move around, get on the board, do all these things and I just broke down in the shower one day because I was like, `God, this just sucks.’ But there were a lot of days like that where there’s just like random thouhts and feelings. The whole last 16 months have been hard to see my teammates have the year we had…and it was difficult because you know I wasn’t able to be out there helping, so it was frustrating.
“…But I wouldn’t change any of it. I’m excited to be where I am and I feel like all those things have kind of helped me to get where I am today. I’m thankful for that.”
How will Big Zu, Ivica Zubac, fit into the Pacers’ up-tempo style?
