Tyrese Haliburton Wants to Bury the Dame Time Beef With Lillard
Haliburton owns the mocking celebration that lit the fuse — and both Achilles-recovery guards sit inside our top 25 heading into 2026-27.
Our #18 overall guard is a discount after a full year off — grab him cheap.
- Haliburton: our #24 overall, #12 at guard
- Lillard: our #18 overall, #9 at position
- Both ruptured Achilles in 2025 playoffs
- Both missed all of 2025-26
- Lillard averaged 42.6 FPTS/G in 2024-25 (actual)
Tyrese Haliburton is ready to talk it out with Damian Lillard. On a podcast appearance published Oct. 8, the Pacers guard took the blame for the feud that traces back to the 2025 in-season tournament — now the NBA Cup — when he drained a late three against the Bucks and mocked Lillard's "Dame Time" wrist-tap celebration. Haliburton said he doesn't regret the moment itself, but he does regret what it did to a relationship that once mattered to him.
The fantasy context here is loaded, because both players enter 2026-27 as top-25 names in our model. Haliburton sits at #24 overall (#12 at guard), while Lillard lands at #18 (#9 at his position). Both are returning from the exact same injury: torn Achilles tendons suffered during the 2025 playoffs, which wiped out their entire 2025-26 campaigns. That shared timeline makes the thaw in their feud more than just a human-interest story.
Haliburton explained that Lillard checked in on him early in his career, especially after Sacramento traded him to Indiana midway through his second season. He said he even got Lillard's blessing to be introduced as the letter "O" during intros — a nod to the jersey number he wears partly because of Lillard. He called it love, said the whole thing became bigger than it needed to be, and chalked it up to being young and caught in the moment.
Why the Fantasy Stakes Are Real
The on-court résumé is why managers should care. In his last healthy season (2024-25), Lillard put up 24.9 points, 7.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds across 58 games, good for 42.6 fantasy points per game — elite guard production. Haliburton wasn't far off, posting 18.6 points and 9.2 assists over 73 games in 2024-25 for 41.3 FPTS/G. Both are proven top-tier producers coming off a lost year.
The flip side is the Achilles. A full season of rust plus one of the most notoriously slow-healing injuries in sports means neither player is a plug-and-play lock in Week 1. Expect minutes management and some early volatility before either returns to those 2024-25 ceilings.
The Fantasy Verdict
Treat Lillard as a buy-low target. At our #18 overall value, he's likely sliding in drafts purely because managers are nervous about the Achilles — and that discount on a 42.6 FPTS/G scorer is exactly the kind of edge you want. Haliburton is the safer floor play given his pre-injury durability (73 games in 2024-25) and assist-driven profile, so draft him with confidence. On both, build in patience for the first few weeks, then reap the reward once the legs are back under them.
