Damian Lillard: Bucks Waiver, Achilles Injury & Blazers Return

Few NBA stories wrap a comeback, a personal split, and a contract saga into one arc — Damian Lillard’s last 18 months have done exactly that. He tore his Achilles in the 2025 playoffs, was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks, and then signed a three-year, $42 million deal to return to Portland, per ESPN (NBA news desk).

Age: 36 (born July 15, 1990) ·
NBA seasons: 14 (2012–present) ·
Career points per game: 25.1 ·
Teams played for: Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks ·
Latest injury: Achilles (2025-26 season) ·
Current status: Signed with Portland Trail Blazers after being waived by Bucks

Eight biographical lines, one pattern: a career that kept circling back to Portland.

The pattern: Lillard’s bio doesn’t fit the usual superstar arc — the injury and the waiver happened in the wrong order, and the comeback is still unwritten.

What has happened to Damian Lillard?

The compressed version: Lillard asked out of Portland in 2023, spent two seasons in Milwaukee, and tore his left Achilles late in the 2025 playoffs, with surgery following in early May. Then came the roster move: the Bucks signed Myles Turner and, on July 1, 2025, waived Lillard, stretching the remaining $113 million on his contract (Associated Press 2025 report).

Days later, Lillard agreed to return to Portland. The waiver gave him the leverage to choose his destination (NBA.com / The Athletic), and he chose the Blazers on a reported three-year, $42 million deal.

The 2025-26 season then disappeared. Lillard sat out the entire campaign recovering from the Achilles injury, while the Blazers continued a rebuild that began the day he was traded. In April 2026, he said he had considered playing for Portland earlier in the season but chose to wait for a full recovery rather than rush back onto a young roster.

How long is Damian Lillard out for?

• Injury logged: April 27, 2025 — left Achilles (Fox Sports NBA injury log)
• 2025-26 season: missed entirely (Rotowire NBA player tracking)
• Return target: 2026-27 season

The clearest update comes from NBC Sports, which reported on September 28, 2026, that Lillard was under no restrictions and had been cleared to resume 5-on-5 play since late April (NBC Sports NBA injury tracker). The injury is no longer the story — the comeback is.

Did Damian Lillard get traded?

• Not a trade: the Bucks waived him on July 1, 2025 (Sports Forecaster NBA transactions log)
• Waivers let him choose his next team as an unrestricted free agent
• He chose Portland on a reported three-year, $42 million deal (ESPN NBA news desk)

The distinction is more than semantics. A trade would have moved his contract to another roster; a waiver ended Milwaukee’s claim to him and let Lillard pick his landing spot. For a player with his résumé, that’s the difference between being sent somewhere and choosing where the next chapter happens.

Do the Bucks still have to pay Damian Lillard?

• Remaining guaranteed money at the waiver: $113 million, stretched (Associated Press)
• Milwaukee’s roster move: signed Myles Turner, waived Lillard
• New Portland deal: reported three years, $42 million (ESPN NBA news desk)

Yes — the Bucks didn’t erase the money, they stretched it. The waiver allowed Milwaukee to spread the cap hit across multiple seasons, which is why the move reads as a payroll decision as much as a basketball one. Lillard, meanwhile, gets paid in Portland while Milwaukee’s accounting department keeps the old invoice open.

Why this matters: the waiver wasn’t a basketball decision first — it was a payroll decision that handed Lillard a rare second homecoming.

The implication: the money is set, the landing spot is set — only the play remains uncertain.

Why did Damian Lillard’s wife leave him?

The personal headline that ran parallel to the basketball one: Lillard and his wife, Kay’La, separated in early 2025. Neither has publicly detailed the reasons, and the couple has kept arrangements around their children private. What’s left in the public record is how Lillard responded — by staying focused on rehabilitation and the return to Portland.

That privacy is the real story. In an era where NBA personal drama becomes content, the Lillard separation has produced almost nothing on the record: no public statements, no filed details, no official timeline. The only confirmed fact is that the split happened, and that Lillard’s public focus has stayed on basketball and family.

What this means: the most visible personal story in Lillard’s life comes with almost no public detail — and that silence is deliberate. It also leaves the basketball arc unobstructed: no off-court drama competing with the return narrative.

Who’s more clutch, Curry or Dame?

The clutch debate has a permanent cast: Stephen Curry, the shooter who redefined the three-point line, and Lillard, the guard who turned “Dame Time” into shorthand for game-winning shots (CBS Sports NBA reporting). Both have the résumés; neither side will ever concede.

The analytics layer is thinner than the mythology. In inpredictable’s 2022 clutch log, Curry appeared in 56 close games and took 170 clutch field-goal attempts (inpredictable (NBA game-log analytics)). One line of that same report shows a 15.0% clutch shooting mark — a reminder that “clutch” is a small sample even for the best shooters. Lillard’s case rests less on volume and more on endings: multiple buzzer-beaters, including historic playoff winners, and a habit of pulling from 30 feet as if it were routine.

Is Damian Lillard a top 5 shooter ever?

• Career three-point percentage: 37.2%
• Signature trait: deep, off-the-dribble threes in the highest-leverage moments

The honest answer: it’s a real argument, but not a settled one. Curry and Klay Thompson occupy the top tier; Lillard’s case for the next rung rests on difficulty and stakes rather than efficiency alone. A 37.2% career mark is excellent; it’s not historic. What makes him a top-5 candidate in some circles is the distance and the moment — shots most players don’t take, taken when the game is on the line.

Has Curry had a 0 point game?

• December 2023: Curry held scoreless against Portland, ending a 268-game double-digit scoring streak

Yes — and the box score became more famous for its shock value than its meaning. One scoreless night against the Trail Blazers snapped a 268-game streak of double-digit scoring, and it’s been cited in clutch debates ever since precisely because it’s so rare. The streak, not the outlier, is the better argument for Curry’s consistency.

Is LeBron faster than Curry?

This question has nothing to do with Lillard’s injury and everything to do with how NBA fans rank superstars against each other. LeBron James is faster in the open court, where his size and stride turn transition into a freight-train highlight; Stephen Curry has quicker acceleration and sharper change-of-direction quickness in tight spaces.

Who ran faster, Jordan or LeBron?

• Michael Jordan’s era: a 40-inch vertical and legendary end-to-end speed
• LeBron’s era: bigger, longer strides at a similar top end

Jordan’s 40-inch vertical and closing speed defined the fast break in the 1990s. LeBron is the same archetype with more size, which makes the comparison less about who was faster at top speed and more about how different body types produce speed.

Who has beaten LeBron the most?

• The Golden State Warriors — the team that beat LeBron most often in the NBA Finals

The Warriors’ multiple Finals wins over LeBron’s Cavaliers give Golden State the distinction of beating him most frequently on the biggest stage. Curry’s involvement in those series is the real answer to the earlier question: ring culture is why the volume-versus-endings debate keeps getting replayed.

Who would win in a 1v1, LeBron or Curry?

• No official result exists — a hypothetical depends on era and rules

A 1v1 between LeBron and Curry would be decided by the rulebook before the first possession: NBA scoring rules favor the bigger player in the paint, while streetball rules give the smaller guard more room. There is no official answer, only preferences — which is exactly why the question never dies.

The takeaway: speed and 1v1 debates are era traps — everyone’s fastest until someone faster shows up. None of it changes Lillard’s task: returning at a high level in a guard league that got younger while he was out.

What’s next for Damian Lillard?

The 2026-27 season is the actual comeback. Lillard enters it with a fully cleared health slate — NBC Sports reported no restrictions as of September 28, 2026 — and a Blazers roster that spent two years learning to play without him. He’ll also be 36 years old, which changes the math: the return isn’t just about being healthy, it’s about being healthy enough to lead.

The timing was deliberate. Lillard admitted in April 2026 that he had considered playing for Portland earlier in the 2025-26 season, but chose to wait out of respect for the team’s rebuilding process. The payoff: he’ll debut in a context where the young core already knows how to function without him — a luxury most returning stars don’t get.

Then there’s the legacy ledger. A successful comeback at 36 would extend a career that already includes seven All-Star selections, a 25.1-point scoring average, and some of the most replayed endings in modern playoff history. A flat return would make the Milwaukee chapter — the trade he requested, the injury he suffered, the waiver he didn’t fight — the last word on his prime.

The trade-off: Portland gets a healthier, more patient Lillard, but at 36 the margin for error is gone — the 2026-27 season likely defines the final chapter of his Hall of Fame case.

Three rows, one pattern: Curry’s clutch case is built on volume, Lillard’s on endings.

Damian Lillard injury and waiver timeline

Ten dates, one through-line: every move since 2023 was a step toward this comeback.

• July 2023 — Lillard requests a trade; a multi-team deal sends him to Milwaukee (Associated Press)
• 2024-25 season — Plays 73 games for the Bucks, averaging 24.4 points and 7.0 assists (CBS Sports NBA reporting)
• April 27, 2025 — Left Achilles injury appears in the league’s injury log (Fox Sports NBA injury log)
• Late April 2025 — Left Achilles tear confirmed in the first-round series against Indiana; surgery follows in early May (ESPN NBA news desk)
• July 1, 2025 — Bucks waive Lillard after signing Myles Turner (Sports Forecaster NBA transactions log)
• July 2025 — Lillard signs a three-year, $42 million deal with Portland (NBA.com / The Athletic)
• September 25, 2025 — Achilles-related entry logged in injury and transaction records (Sports Forecaster transaction log)
• 2025-26 season — Lillard misses the entire campaign while recovering (Rotowire NBA player tracking)
• Late April 2026 — Cleared to resume 5-on-5 play; Lillard says he considered returning earlier but chose to wait (NBC Sports NBA injury tracker)
• September 28, 2026 — NBC Sports reports Lillard is under no restrictions

The implication: every major move since 2023 — the trade, the tear, the waiver, the return — points to one season, and that season is next.

What’s confirmed and what’s still unclear

The confirmed facts are solid; the open questions are the ones that will shape how this comeback is judged.

The catch: the facts are settled, but the open questions are the ones that will decide how this return is remembered.

Back home: what Lillard said

“Found my way back home.”

— Damian Lillard, via CBS Sports (NBA feature reporting)

“Lillard returns to Portland two years after requesting a trade — and the waiver gave him the leverage to make the return his choice.”

— The Athletic, via NBA.com (NBA editorial)

Lillard’s return to Portland is real, but it’s also fragile: a 36-year-old guard coming off a torn Achilles, carrying a contract that Milwaukee is still paying in stretched installments. For the Portland front office, the choice is clear: build the 2026-27 rotation around a deliberately managed comeback, or watch a legacy-defining reunion become a farewell tour.

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