{"id":861437,"date":"2026-08-20T01:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861437\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T01:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:02:15","slug":"3-trail-blazers-make-hoopshypes-top-point-guard-rankings-for-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/861437\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Trail Blazers Make HoopsHype\u2019s Top Point Guard Rankings for 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">We\u2019re putting a lot of faith in Damian Lillard\u2019s rehab process here, as the future Hall-of-Famer hasn\u2019t played since April 27, 2025, when he tore his Achilles in Game 4 of the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 first-round playoff matchup against the Indiana Pacers. By all accounts, Lillard\u2019s rehab has gone well, however, so after shaking off some rust, we expect to see Lillard playing at a high level again sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Will Lillard ever reach that All-NBA level again? Or even All-Star level? That remains to be seen, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoopshype.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/injuries\/2025\/05\/03\/nba-oldest-players-to-miss-an-entire-season-and-become-all-star-again\/83431903007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">history tells us it won\u2019t be easy<\/a>, as Lillard is now 36 years old. The previous oldest player to tear his Achilles, miss an entire season and then make another All-Star appearance after recovering from the injury was Anthony Mason, who was 32 at the time of his injury and 34 when he made another All-Star appearance. For comparison\u2019s sake, Lillard was 34 when he blew out his Achilles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">\u2026 That\u2019s all to say: It\u2019s difficult to predict the level Lillard will play at once he does return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Either way, as fans of the game, we\u2019re excited to see his return, as Lillard will be playing on a strong Portland team, alongside another thrilling floor general in Morant, making the 2026-27 Blazers potential League Pass darlings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re putting a lot of faith in Damian Lillard\u2019s rehab process here, as the future Hall-of-Famer hasn\u2019t played&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,431147,590,85],"class_list":["post-861437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blazers-roster","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}