Haliburton has also opted out of the 2025-2026 season. The Indiana president said, "We can't sacrifice Haliburton next year. Haliburton will rest next season because he fears his basketball career will be over if he plays before his injury is fully healed. He had successful surgery.
I hope this injury doesn't end his basketball career early. Everyone has shown how important he is to Indiana this year."
Which makes sense, because we have seen plenty of people who came back early and then caused them to play much worse. Taking a full year out, would mean that he will not be playing for about 15 months or so at least. He won't play this summer, then all season, then next summer, so it should be something around 15 months, maybe even 16 months. That would be not only enough for him to heal, but then it would be great for him to rehab, and at that point we are going to see him be better than ever.
Plus, he could take this time to take care of his body, he could work out ,and be in better shape. What many do not see is that these players do not have this much time, all the way until they retire, they play as kids, and then they play at High school, and then one year of college, and then a whole NBA career. They don't get much time off, Haliburton, given 15 months, with recovery and working out, could actually be even better physically after this injury.
I don't know if there are statistics or not, but it seems to me that the Achilles injury is one of the most insidious in NBA history because it has ruined so many careers of promising players.
As for Hali, I doubt that he will be able to fully recover and perform better than before the injury, even if he has 15 months to recover.