Damian Lillard was waived and stretched by the Milwaukee Bucks in what turned out to be a disastrous decision to clear space to sign Myles Turner. Lillard then had the opportunity to play essentially anywhere he wanted, yet decided to return to the Portland Trail Blazers after two seasons away from the franchise where he built his Hall of Fame legacy.
Part of that was because he needed a gap year to recover from that torn Achilles, which he would now have the opportunity to do back home around family. Still, according to Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report, Lillard was adamant this was also just as much of a basketball decision.
"When we all sat down and this idea started to move towards me signing back here, I'm going to look at the basketball situation," Lillard said. "We play basketball and you want to win basketball games. A lot of people may look at it as a family decision, and obviously anybody would have their family be a part of a decision that they make. But this was just as much a basketball decision."
Damian Lillard's return already looks like a good 'basketball decision'
We saw why that was the case in his Blazers homecoming Wednesday at the Moda Center to kick off the 2026-27 season. Portland's revamped backcourt was instantly put to the test facing the Phoenix Suns, the same team they faced in last year's Play-In.
It's safe to say they passed the first test, considering it was a 124-83 blowout. Lillard was a key contributor in that, finishing with a game-high 25 points in just 24 minutes.
The trio of Lillard, Ja Morant, and Deni Avdija did the heavy lifting on offense while Toumani Camara and Donovan Clingan compensated for any defensive limitations. It was a formula that worked thanks largely to Lillard's arrival. You could instantly see how well his floor spacing and offensive creation fit alongside Portland's building blocks, and why he envisioned this basketball fit working back in the Pacific Northwest.
It was ironically largely thanks to the trade that sent him away in the first place. They finally had the pieces Lillard lacked all those years during his first stint with the Blazers. Only the question now would be if the second stint would be too little too late. Not only in terms of his window closing at 36 years old, but also whether he would return to form coming back from such a significant injury that late into his career.
You don't want to overreact to a blowout to open the season, but what was immediately apparent was that burst that made him such an elite three-level scoring threat was still there. Portland missed Dame the person regardless of what level he'd be able to play at. But now that we're seeing it all click on the court, it's exciting times for basketball in Portland. Credit Dame for seeing what this roster was capable of, deciding to join it, and then contributing to that elevation in a major way himself.
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