Damian Lillard on Blazers return: ‘I checked every box’

Damian Lillard considered coming back during last spring’s playoffs. He decided he wanted to return without wondering whether his body was ready.

Now, the Trail Blazers guard is preparing to play Wednesday in his first regular-season game since March 18, 2025, confident that taking the additional time was the right decision.

“The reason I sat out the entire season was because I wanted to check every box,” Lillard told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “I didn’t want to come limping back or having second thoughts about, ‘Man, can I do this? Can I do that? What should I stay away from?’”

Rather than push to return from his Achilles tear in the postseason, Lillard used another offseason to work toward full health and restore his confidence in the repaired tendon.

“I checked every box and I cleared every box, so that was my priority in that process, and I did exactly that,” he said.

New coach Micah Nori likes what he has seen.

“There’s really no loss of his — I’m not going to say explosiveness, but his quickness,” Nori told Spears. “But the other thing is, like I tell people: He hurt his lower body, not his upper body. He can still shoot the thing, so his game is not reliant on all that quickness.”

Portland also plans to give Lillard more opportunities to score without having to create the entire possession himself. Nori said Lillard will work off the ball more frequently than he did earlier in his career, while remaining an option in the pick-and-roll.

“It’s just more of him getting shots and us finding space for him,” Nori said.

That approach could allow the Blazers to use Lillard’s shooting while easing some of the responsibility of initiating the offense. Nori also pointed to his willingness to compete defensively.

For Lillard, Wednesday brings the opportunity he chose to wait for: Playing again with confidence in what his body can handle.