With training camp opening September 29, five franchise-level players are returning from injuries that cost them the entire 2025-26 season. Their recoveries will shape playoff races and perhaps the title conversation: Tyrese Haliburton, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, Fred VanVleet and Jimmy Butler.
Haliburton: 15 months away, everything at stake
It has been 15 months since Tyrese Haliburton set foot on an NBA court. The Indiana Pacers star shredded his Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, one of the cruelest exits a player can suffer. He had been one of the league’s best point guards that year: 18.6 points, 9.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game, building toward All-NBA recognition. Achilles recoveries at elite level are rarely linear. Indiana has built patiently around his return and expects a full version, not a cautious shadow of it.
Irving: Cooper Flagg’s new running mate
Kyrie Irving tore his left ACL on March 3, 2025, ending what had been a rejuvenated chapter in Dallas. Now 34, he returns to a Mavericks squad rebuilt around generational prospect Cooper Flagg. Irving’s pull-up creation and off-ball movement alongside Flagg’s two-way versatility makes sense on paper. Whether Irving can stay healthy enough to matter remains the only real question.
Lillard: back in Portland, starting over
Damian Lillard’s return carries the most narrative weight. He left Portland, suffered a torn left Achilles in the 2025 playoffs while with Milwaukee and has since returned to Portland for a second chapter no one scripted. At 35, the same recovery questions that shadow Haliburton apply here, amplified by age. Portland’s rebuild gives him time and context, but the clock is real.
VanVleet: Houston’s missing link
Fred VanVleet tore his ACL in an offseason workout before the 2025-26 season even began, costing him a full year and robbing the Rockets of a proven floor general during what turned into a strong campaign. He opted into his $25 million deal for 2026-27, a signal of mutual confidence. With Amen Thompson locked in on a five-year, $208 million extension, Houston’s core is intact. A healthy VanVleet changes what this team can realistically aim for.
Four comebacks, one question
Four Achilles or ACL recoveries in one offseason is historically uncommon. For the Pacers, Mavericks, Trail Blazers and Rockets, the health of their returning star sets the ceiling for the entire season. By October 24, when the regular season tips off, the first real answers will arrive.
