Tyrese Haliburton

The best buy-low among the Achilles returners, because the injury and the player don't overlap: an Achilles takes burst, and Haliburton's game is vision, volume threes, elite free-throw shooting and almost no turnovers — the exact categories that survive (our 50-returner study: shooting and craft retain, athleticism craters). Before the hamstring-marred year that ended in the tear, he was a top-16 per-game player three seasons running, and at 26 with sixteen months of runway he fits the Durant precedent, not the cautionary tales. We project the rates near his healthy level; the honest risk is the calendar — an early ramp, possible rest nights — so we bank 60 games (the Achilles class returns at ~0.72x) into his draft value, not his rank. If your room prices the injury instead of the profile, take the discount.

Tyrese Haliburton enters 2026-27 at #17 on our board — Round 2 value in a standard 12-team draft, projected for 17.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 9.0 assists in 31.0 minutes a night. The value is built on assists and threes, with rebounds the soft spot in the profile. He's a natural fit for punt-rebounds builds — take that category out of the equation and his value climbs. He's working back from injury, and the projection already prices the return: we expect about 60 games, so the per-game line only pays on the nights he's actually out there.