Haliburton on His Return, Preseason Thoughts, and Most Intriguing Players!
October 8, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readHaliburton's Return, Preseason Observations, and the Warriors' Existential Crisis
The first preseason game of the 2026-27 season gave Tyrese Haliburton his first live action since rupturing his Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 Finals against Oklahoma City. Playing at Iowa State, his college home, Haliburton looked like himself in flashes—the passing, the off-ball movement, the pace—but admitted the game was moving faster than it has in years. "That's going to be the biggest adjustment for me," he said. "The game has slowed down for me for a long time, and yesterday was the first time in a while that I felt like, ooh, I'm moving kind of fast." The Pacers won 19 games without him last season. With him back, they looked like a team again.
Preseason Observations: What's Real and What's Just Noise
Zach Lowe and Nekias Duncan traded rapid-fire observations from the first week of preseason action, with the usual caveat that preseason means almost nothing—except when it means something. The 2014-15 Warriors announced themselves in the preseason as a completely different animal, and sometimes early trends do carry over.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:49) **Welcome and Episode Preview** - Zach Lowe introduces the episode's three segments: preseason observations with Nekias Duncan, a Warriors deep dive with Nick Friedel, and a conversation with Tyrese Haliburton.
- 2 (02:42) **Preseason Observations with Nekias Duncan** - Lowe and Duncan trade rapid-fire thoughts on what they've seen in early preseason action.
- 3 (39:08) **Most Intriguing Player: Evan Mobley** - Nekias Duncan explains why Evan Mobley is his most intriguing player for the upcoming season.
- 4 (48:38) **Most Intriguing Player: Brandon Miller** - Zach Lowe picks Brandon Miller as his most intriguing player, tying it to the Hornets' post-LaMelo Ball rebuild.
- 5 (59:48) **Warriors Deep Dive with Nick Friedel** - Nick Friedel joins to discuss the Golden State Warriors' outlook, roster, and future.
- 6 (84:00) **Tyrese Haliburton Interview** - Tyrese Haliburton discusses his return from Achilles surgery, the Pacers' new-look offense, and his perspective on last season's Finals run.
- 7 Standout Quotes
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Zach and Nekias Duncan start things off by sharing their biggest takeaways from the preseason so far and revealing the players they find most intriguing. Then, Nick Friedell joins Zach to explain the Warriors' game plan for this season and provide some updates to their extension discussions. Finally, Tyrese Haliburton comes on to recap his recovery and thoughts on the Finals, his rivalry with the New York Knicks, and what he’d like to do in the WWE.
(0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show!
(1:27) Nekias Duncan joins the show!
(9:20) Random preseason observations
(34:10) Rapid-fire thoughts
(37:52) Most intriguing players
(58:35) Nick Friedell joins the show!
(1:07:09) Should we expect a Podziemski extension?
(1:16:38) The Warriors should probably just ride this out
(1:21:22) Tyrese Haliburton joins the show!
(1:24:16) What’s different about you from when you were at your peak?
(1:34:11) On the team's differences at center
(1:40:30) On the Knicks rivalry
(1:42:35) WWE wishlist
(1:45:28) Does this team have a hunger to it?
Host: Zach Lowe
Guests: Nekias Duncan, Nick Friedell, and Tyrese Haliburton
Producers: Jonathan Frias, Billy Gil, and Mike Wargon
Social: Keith Fujimoto and Michael Szokoli
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