Tyrese Haliburton predicts NBA trends to expect this season
The Indiana Pacers are one of many teams that could take a step back this season. Tyrese Halliburton’s torn ACL in the NBA Finals will set it aside for the whole year. However, he is ready to see how the league will develop and what strategies will prevail. In his opinion, the pairing of Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren in the Oklahoma City Thunder will inspire mimics.
The The Thunder won 68 games en route to the 2025 championship. While the team was led by NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, its big duo dominated all season long when both were healthy. In an era where the league is obsessed with a space-and-pace philosophy, Oklahoma City broke the mold and won the NBA Finals with a dominant defense.
Halliburton broke what he thinks he will change league in the 2025-26 season on The Kevin O’Connor Show. According to the All-Star guard, he thinks other teams will try to find their Hartenstein-Holmgren duo.
“You hear it all the time, our league is a copycat league, you take what’s working and you see what the top teams are doing and you kind of try to steal from that. And I think with Boston two years ago it was shoot a million threes. And then everybody was trying to shoot more threes the next year. I mean from this last year, this Finals. We see how OKC is playing there’s going to be two big transitions, so I said to Hally. “And then I saw a lot of teams talking about taking the full field more in the preseason this year. Which is something that I feel like we as a group really drove to the playoffs last year. I think it’s easier to sustain that through seven games than to be able to sustain 82.”
Haliburton will not be on the field for Indiana this season. However, that won’t stop him from watching the NBA take another step forward in its evolution of on-court strategy.
2025-10-16 20:07:00
