Damian Lillard is back in Portland, and early on, the Trail Blazers are acting like a team that believes the fit is real. After two straight wins to open the season, the Blazers have Lillard at the center of the conversation again, this time in a very different setting than the one he left behind in Milwaukee.
Before tonight’s game against the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, Lillard spoke with ESPN’s Chiney Ogwumike and looked back on his stint with the Bucks without any bitterness. The results never matched the hype, but he didn’t frame the experience as a disappointment.
“It was a solid experience,” Lillard told Ogwumike. “I met a lot of people there that I’m still friends with today.
I had a good experience with the organization. I was going through a lot personally that made it a challenge, but it was a solid experience.
Doing something outside of Portland, playing with a great player like Giannis, I think that was a luxury that I hadn’t experienced, playing with somebody that’s gonna show up - he’s gonna compete. So that was like fun for me.
I could just feel that it wasn’t my home.”
Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo arrived with big expectations, but the pairing never fully clicked the way anyone hoped. Still, Lillard made it clear he’s carrying no resentment from that chapter. What stood out to him was the experience itself and the relationships that came out of it.
Now he’s back where he spent so much of his career, and after one full season in rehab, he returned to Portland last week. At 36, there’s plenty of outside noise about whether he can still chase a title, but Lillard sees a different league than the one he left behind.
“I’m coming back into this situation knowing the league is in a better place,” Lillard added. “In my last stretch in Portland, we knew who the big dogs were.
Golden State was on their run - Cleveland and Boston. Now… it’s kind of balanced the league out a little bit, to where in the last few years, you don’t know who might end up there.
You saw Indiana make a run to the Finals, and nobody would have picked them. Nobody picked New York coming in last year to win it all.”
He also pointed to why Portland feels right this time around. In his view, the Blazers have the kind of depth and talent that make the situation workable, and the return itself was something both sides wanted.
“So, you see the opportunity that’s there. We got depth, we got wings, we got talent.
I could fit into what’s going on with this team. And it’s my team that I’ve played for all these years.
My family. I built my house there.
I can be back with my kids. And it was mutual.
I didn’t just have this idea in my head. They had the same idea.
And once we got together it was like this is right.”
The Blazers’ roster gives that optimism some backing, with names like Lillard, Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan, Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson, and others on the books. Ja Morant is another major reason Portland has so much buzz early, and Lillard sounds convinced the two can work well together.
He pushed back on the idea that Morant is immature, saying his view has changed now that he’s seen him up close.
“You play against somebody, and you hear what you hear, and it’s been fun to get to know him,” said Lillard. “Being his teammate, you see how misunderstood he is, you see how sharp he is as a basketball player… You direct traffic as a point guard, and I think the thing about him is he’s seeing the game that way, to where, like, me being off the ball more so far this year is taking that responsibility of me having to always be hyper aware.”
Even with Shaedon Sharpe’s devastating injury, Portland has started the year with confidence and a clear edge. The challenge gets much tougher tonight against an undefeated Lakers team, and for Lillard, it’s another familiar stage with a very different cast around him. This time, he doesn’t have to do everything himself.
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