According to Shams Charania of ESPN, the Portland Trail Blazers just signed Damian Lillard to a three-year, $42 million contract that includes a player option for the 2027-28 season and a no-trade clause. Lillard will return to the franchise with which he built his legendary NBA career, and the Blazers get him back for a fraction of the price they were previously slated to pay him.
Two years ago, the Blazers traded Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks for Jrue Holiday and an absolute haul of draft picks, before flipping Holiday for even more value. Now, they have Lillard, Holiday, and almost all of the assets they got back in those two deals.
It’s been stroke of genius after stroke of genius for Portland.
Full details of original Damian Lillard trade
When the Blazers first traded Lillard to the Bucks, it was a three-team deal that also included the Phoenix Suns. They got Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, the Bucks’ 2029 first-round pick, and pick swaps with Milwaukee in 2028 and 2030.
Then, Portland wasted no time flipping Holiday. They shipped him out to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon, a 2024 Golden State Warriors first-round pick, and a 2029 Celtics first-round pick.
Obviously, most of the picks have yet to be conveyed. But a lot of the players have continued to be moved around, and Lillard and Holiday have both somehow ended up in Portland.
Portland bought out Ayton, which is certainly less than ideal, but they still have all of the picks they got in the Lillard trade. Plus, they have Camara, who has blossomed into an All-Defensive player.
And now, they have Lillard back, too. The Bucks effectively traded their draft pick flexibility from 2028 to 2030 and Holiday in exchange for two (ultimately disastrous) years of Lillard in Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, the Blazers had to trade Anfernee Simons to get Holiday back, but now, they have a backcourt rotation of Holiday, Scoot Henderson, and Shaedon Sharpe moving forward. Plus, Lillard can be added to that group once he finishes rehabbing from his torn Achilles.
Williams is still in Portland, and if all that weren’t enough, they used Brogdon and the Warriors pick they got from Boston in a package to land Deni Avdija, who should be a huge part of their core moving forward.
All in all, though Lillard’s relationship with the Blazers certainly took a tumble for a while, it seems to be fine now. And with the way everything transpired, they couldn’t have asked for a better result.