{"id":24887,"date":"2025-07-21T00:19:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T00:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24887\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T00:19:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T00:19:21","slug":"damian-lillard-reportedly-finalizing-deal-to-return-to-portland-trail-blazers-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24887\/","title":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard reportedly finalizing deal to return to Portland Trail Blazers | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Damian Lillard is returning to the Portland Trail Blazers. The nine-time NBA All-Star is finalizing a three-year, $42m contract with the franchise where he spent the first 11 seasons of his career, ESPN reported<\/a> Thursday. The deal includes a player option for the 2027\u201328 season and a no-trade clause.<\/p>\n

Lillard, who turned 35 this week, was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> on 7 July. The team stretched the $113m remaining on his contract to make room for free-agent center Myles Turner.<\/p>\n

The veteran guard is expected to miss the entire 2025\u201326 season after undergoing surgery in May to repair a torn left achilles tendon. He sustained the injury on 27 April in the first quarter of the Bucks\u2019 Game 4 loss to Indiana in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was just his third game back after missing a month due to a blood clot in his right calf. He also sat out the final 14 games of the regular season.<\/p>\n

Despite receiving interest from playoff contenders offering mid-level and veteran minimum deals, Lillard chose to return to Portland, where his family resides. Talks with general manager Joe Cronin and head coach Chauncey Billups intensified in recent weeks, with all sides aligned on a reunion. His agent, Aaron Goodwin, is finalizing the terms this week.<\/p>\n

Damian Lillard remains Portland\u2019s all-time leader in points and threes and second in assists. Photograph: Alika Jenner\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Between his stretched Milwaukee salary and the new Portland contract, Lillard will earn $70m next season and $141m over the next two years.<\/p>\n

Lillard initially requested a trade in 2023 after the Trail Blazers began a rebuild. He was dealt to Milwaukee in a three-team blockbuster that sent Jrue Holiday and Toumani Camara to Portland. Holiday was later traded to Boston, then reacquired by the Blazers this offseason.<\/p>\n

With Lillard\u2019s return, the Blazers now boast a core that includes Holiday, Robert Williams III, Scoot Henderson, Camara and a stockpile of future picks and swaps.<\/p>\n

Lillard averaged 24.9 points, 7.1 assists, and 4.7 rebounds in 58 regular-season games with Milwaukee. He owns career averages of 25.1 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.3 rebounds over 900 games.<\/p>\n

He ranks fourth all-time in made three-pointers (2,804) and eighth among active players in scoring (22,598 points). In Portland, he remains the all-time leader in points<\/a> and threes and second in assists. He led the franchise to eight playoff appearances, including a run to the 2019 Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damian Lillard is returning to the Portland Trail Blazers. The nine-time NBA All-Star is finalizing a three-year, $42m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-24887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}