Haliburton has already been ruled out for the entire 2025 season. Rehabbing an achilles tear takes a long time and players aren't confident doing the same movements they were doing before the tear. Fear of reinjuring themselves usually. He will be doing physical therapy for a few months minimum after it heals. If the Pacers went deep in the playoffs there would be a small chance he could play, but I doubt they go to the playoffs with the roster changes currently.
Which makes sense, it is a smart decision if you have a star player to just rule him out completely.
They could have rushed him back for like lets say last week of regular season, get him play 2-3 games at regular season to get back in game shape, and then first round should be easier, and hope that he does well during playoffs, so it was a possibility. But that would have also carried the risk of injuring him back again, and there is no need for that.
The risk is, after this new season ends, will they have enough team around Haliburton to build around yet again, they lost Miles already at centre, god knows what else will happen in the next 1+ year before they start a new season, so when Haliburton returns, it might be a totally new team.