How family played a factor in Damian Lillard’s decision to return to Portland | NBA Today

How family played a factor in Damian Lillard’s decision to return to Portland | NBA Today

Damen Lillard, he already has his locker ready in Portland. He agreed to a three-year $42 million contract to return to the Blazers after being waved by the Bucks earlier this month. The ninetime all-star he will likely miss the entire upcoming season recovering from an Achilles injury. But he returns to the team that drafted him in 2012. And I love that they already had the locker room ready for his return. Our senior insider Sham Shirana is here with more. Shams, there were a lot of teams interested in Damen Lillard beyond sort of the heartfelt story. Who else was in the mix and why did he ultimately choose to go back to Portland? Malikica, over a dozen teams made minimum and mid-level exception offers to Damen Lillard. Two teams in particular, I’m told that Damen Lillard really consider, and that’s the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timber. He held calls with both teams at different points. But to be in Portland back home with his three young kids, that was by far the most important factor I was told in his return to the Trailblazers. And he was going to spend the year rehabbing in Portland anyways from that Achilles tear. But to return to Portland, the franchise that he obviously is an icon in, that meant a lot to him. He held multiple meetings with general manager Joe Cronin and head coach Chanty Bilbs at his house in the last few weeks. So he goes back three years, 42 million. He’s one of two players along with LeBron James to have a no trade clause right now in the NBA. So a return to Portland made sense for him on a lot of different levels. And this next season, Malikica, he’s going to be earning $70 million between his Buck salary and his Blazer salary. In two years before his player option in 2027, he has a guaranteed $141 million over the next two years. I mean, I know that he will be sitting out uh likely all year, but making $70 million to do that isn’t so bad if you want to look at the glass half full here. The recovery process though is going to be long. What are his expectations, Shams, for when he might return to the court? Malikica Damon Lillard will be using the entire 25 2025 26 season to rehab that Achilles tear and then make his return his reunion in Portland in that arena in 2026 2027 and then he has that opt out in the summer of 2027. The mindset of Damen Lillard right now is that that summer he will be going into free agency potentially in line for another big deal but now he’s in Portland. He’s going to be there rehabbing. He’s going to be there, a big part of the community, big part of the roster, a leader for that young team. You think about what the Blazers have done this off season, not only in the draft with Yang Hansen, but also getting Drew Holiday, a veteran all-star caliber player. Then you get now Damon Lillard back. So, they’re making moves to retool this roster to try to be more competitive in the next couple years. Chanty Phillips finished last season 22 and 18. They had a top five defense as well in the second half of the season. And you just think Shams the first time back in Moda Center when they say over the PA system and wearing the letter O. It’s Damian Lillard. That place is going to go absolutely nuts. Thank you so much for your reporting jobs. We’ll see you back here in just a little bit. Udonis Hasslam, Bobby Marks, Aman Shumpert joining me now. I’m going to start with you here UD. Your first reaction when you saw that Damen Lillard is going back back to Portland. Excitement. Excited. I’m happy for Dame. I understand who Dame is as a person. I understand the things that are important to Dame is his love for his family and his loyalty to the city of Portland. He loves the city of Portland. He never really wanted to leave, but he wanted to put himself in a position where he can fight and contend for a championship. And his love for his family is very important for him. I look at that situation in Portland. I say yes, he’s not going to play the year that’s coming up, but he has the opportunity to mentor some great young players. He has the opportunity to be next to Chanty Bilick, who’s a champion. Dame is obviously a Hall of Famer. They just bought in James Posey who’s a champion. Drew Holidayiday is a champion. So when you look at Scoo Henderson, when you look at Sharp, when you look at Klingan, when you look at all these young guys, Ying Hansen, the guy who they got from China, when you look at all these young guys, this is really an opportunity for these young guys to really learn from some of the best guys that have played the game of basketball. Without a doubt, I got to second him there. Like having Damen Lillard in a role now where he doesn’t have to produce 40 points. just going to be a year for him to talk to guys, make sure guys are in the right position, make sure guys are working out to make themselves better in their own right. Um, then when he joins the team, the following year, we’ll be able to look at what he can do and see if he can go a little bit less on the dame time and just be more uh honestly big shot, be more Chanty Bilips in that idea of I’m going to direct traffic a little bit more. I’m going to put guys in positions to be successful. I’m not trying to win a scoring title. I’m trying to win a title, right? and waiting now with Scoot Henderson maybe or a Shaden Sharp mentoring those young guys because with no Anthony Simons on this team anymore they really have a ability to step up this year I completely understand and I think it’s so wonderful the family part of all of this as well Bobby but looking at this deal from the Blazers point of view how do they how should they be looking at this I I think Malikica you look at it in two different ways here I think the first way is that he’s an extension of Chanty Bill’s coaching staff this upcoming year certainly rehabbing from that Achilles injury. As Sham said, the likelihood is that he’s not going to be playing. You’ve got all these young players as Aman and UDA said, you know, certainly Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp and Donovan Klingan. So, for right now, it’s the extension part as far as when he can get back healthy. And then the second part is then on the basketball court, how is the pairing with Drew Holiday work? How does that work next year? Most of this roster is intact for the 2026 27 season. The really the only big free agent is Robert Williams. So, you do bring back the nucleus of this roster. The other thing too, Malikica, when he left in 2023, that roster was not very good. When you look at it two years later, this is a significantly improved roster that he’s walking into right now. It wasn’t a successful fit really with the Milwaukee Bucks and in heartbreaking fashion, he tore his Achilles at the end of the season. Um, but when you look at the basketball fit now, UD, for Damen Lillard with Portland, it’s not necessarily one of those upper echelon contender teams, but there are ways in which this works. How do you see that? Um, obviously the mentorship the first season, but then the second season, you come in and everybody knows how great Dame is controlling the pace, handling the ball, scoring the basketball, but I also feel like he has the opportunity to play next to a great guard who can defend on both ends. I mean, who can play both sides of the basketball court. When you look at what Milwaukee was able to do with Drew Holiday at the point guard when they were 11th in offense, but they were number one in defense. So, when you look back Dame going back to Portland, yes, Dame is going to score a lot of points. But when you talk about a team who finished fifth in defense last year in the second half of the season, this is another opportunity to get one of the best two-way players in the league. You saw the impact that he had with Milwaukee winning the championship. You saw the impact that he had with Boston winning the championship. So, when you put one of the best clutch players in the league next to one of the best two players, two-way players in the league, you really have a good back court for these young guys to learn from. Without a doubt, when he talks about uh a guy playing both sides of the ball, Drew Holiday has been talked about at that position and not just the point guard position or the shooting guard position. He’s been mentioned as a combo guard, he can guard one through three. Uh guys that can do that can uh make it to where you guys can switch on defense. Those type of things is what Damen Lillard has never had. Even though he’s had CJ McCullen, him and CJ McCullen were not uh together to be a prominent defensive guarding team. Like they they weren’t supposed to be out there guarding things and cutting the head off the snake, so to speak. Drew Holiday has always prided himself on that. And he’s also prided himself on being able to stand next to a superstar, right, and say, “This is where I fit in.” The Portland Trailblazers, they finished the end of last season 23 and 18. So, they put together a little run there, really defensive-minded run where they were able to stack together a couple of wins here. And now they get the most famous trailblazer in the history of the organization back. The letter O is back in Portland. [Music]

Shams Charania joins Malika Andrews on NBA Today to discuss why Damian Lillard chose to return to the Portland Trail Blazers. Udonis Haslem, Iman Shumpert and Bobby Marks react to the signing and debate how he’ll fit with the Blazers’ current roster.

0:00 Shams
3:20 The panel reacts
6:04 How will he fit?

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