The Portland Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard couldn’t have forged their reunion without one LA Lakers star doing them a big favor.
The Portland Trail Blazers are set to welcome back their best player ever. In a shocking update, we learned that Damian Lillard would return to the Portland Trail Blazers next season.
Lillard suffered a horrific Achilles tear that ruled him out for the 2025-26 NBA season. As a result, few fans expected a trade involving Lillard.
However, in a shocking turn of events, the Milwaukee Bucks waived Lillard to sign Myles Turner. This was a move to create cap space, which left Damian Lillard without a new team.
While several teams competed for his signature, Lillard prioritized his family and returned to the Trail Blazers.
But the Trail Blazers couldn’t have competed for this signing had the LA Lakers’ newest signing not met them halfway during buyout negotiations.
Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty ImagesDeandre Ayton buyout massively helped Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers agreed to a buyout with Deandre Ayton this month. To get out of his deal early, Ayton gave up $10 million out of the $35 million the Trail Blazers owed him.
As a result of this, the Trail Blazers opened up a non-taxpayer midlevel exception (MLE) worth $14.1 million a year.
This is how they can afford to pay Lillard $42 million across three years. If it weren’t for Ayton giving up an eight-figure sum, the Trail Blazers wouldn’t have been able to bring back Lillard.
Of course, Deandre Ayton earning an $8 million salary with the LA Lakers this season made his sacrifice a lot easier to accept.
As a result, the Bahamian big man effectively gave up just $2 million of what was owed to him this season in the final year of the $133 million contract he signed years ago with the Phoenix Suns.
Portland Trail Blazers salary cap situation after signing Damian Lillard.
Deandre Ayton agreeing to a $10 million buyout made it possible for them to use the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception while remaining under the luxury tax. pic.twitter.com/NBeKr7rec9
— Yossi Gozlan (@YossiGozlan) July 17, 2025
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Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard trade haul somehow includes himself
Fans will remember that the Portland Trail Blazers traded Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2023. In the trade package, the Bucks sent the Trail Blazers Jrue Holiday.
The Trail Blazers didn’t wait long to flip Holiday, sending him to the Boston Celtics just weeks later. They helped set the stage for the Celtics’ 2024 NBA championship win with the trade.
But now, just two years since the original deal, the Portland Trail Blazers have Damian Lillard back, and they have Jrue Holiday on their roster as well.
In a vacuum, the Trail Blazers’ long-term haul for trading Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday actually includes getting both stars back.
This is a brilliant and shrewd bit of business from GM Joe Cronin. Now, the next step must be to use Lillard and Holiday to mentor Scoot Henderson and their next generation of stars.