Damian Lillard is headed back to Portland. The city he loves and where he is a franchise icon.
Lillard, 35, is a free agent after being waived and stretched by the Milwaukee Bucks (to free up room for them to sign Myles Turner), and he is deep in negotiations to return to Portland, a story broken by Zach Lowe of the Ringer and Bill Oram of the Oregonian. Then Lillard confirmed the news on social media.
Lillard reportedly will sign a three-year, $45 million contract with a player-option in the third year and a no-trade clause. The idea is that he will spend this coming season rehabbing from his torn Achilles before playing two more years in Portland.
From the moment Milwaukee waived him, a return to Portland was always considered a possibility in league circles — it’s where he always wanted to be, and that ended up outweighing chasing a ring somewhere else. Portland is where Lillard’s home and family are, and it’s where his heart always has been.
Lillard played 11 seasons for the Trail Blazers where he was a seven-time All-NBA and All-Star player, as well as the 2013 Rookie of the Year. He averaged 25.2 points and 6.7 assists a game while with the Blazers, as well as developing a reputation as one of the best clutch players and best leaders in the league.
Lillard’s leadership is something Portland could use, particularly with a young roster that includes guards Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara, as well as the recently drafted center Yang Hansen from China. The Trail Blazers also traded for Jrue Holiday this offseason and have held on to him as a mentor for their young guards — Lillard and Holiday were traded for each other back in 2023 and are now teammates. With Lillard sidelined for this season recovering, questions about rotation minutes and how all the guards fit together are not pressing. Holiday could be traded to a contender at the deadline or next summer, or other things will happen that will change the guard dynamic in the next year.
The Trail Blazers traded Lillard two summers ago in an effort to jump-start a rebuild and get him to a team where he could contend. That deal worked out for the Blazers, who got Holiday (who they flipped to Boston, where he helped the Celtics win a ring), Deandre Ayton, Camara, and the Bucks 2029 first-round pick in the deal.
However, that trade never quite came together as envisioned for Milwaukee, as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard never meshed as expected (part of that was due to injuries, part of it was the two seemingly being reluctant to run pick-and-rolls with each other. After Lillard tore his Achilles this postseason, it was the Bucks who decided to move on, stretching Lillard’s nearly $113 million remaining on his contract over five years to free up short-term cap space (but have $22 million in dead money on their books for each of the next five years).
That was a win for Lillard, who had control over where he would play next. He has chosen Portland.
