Celtics Rumors: New Details Of Damian Lillard Pursuit Emerge

The Boston Celtics’ quest to make their first splash addition of free agency ended on Thursday when veteran guard Damian Lillard opted to return to the Portland Trail Blazers on a three-year, $42 million contract.

Lillard, who spent the past two seasons playing for the Milwaukee Bucks, was waived earlier this offseason after he suffered a torn Achilles in the 2025 NBA Playoffs (which is the same injury Jayson Tatum would suffer a few weeks later).

As a result, Lillard is expected to miss the entire 2025-26 campaign, meaning he likely won’t take the court again until he’s 36 years old. Despite that, Boston was interested in signing him and stashing him, which would have potentially set the team up nicely for the 2026-27 season.

Instead, Lillard returned to a Trail Blazers team that he spent the first 11 years of his career with. The Celtics may have missed out on him, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort, as Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the nine-time All-Star was seriously considering signing with Boston.

“Over a dozen teams made minimum and midlevel exception offers to Damian Lillard,” Charania said on “NBA Today.” “Two teams in particular I’m told that Damian Lillard really considered, and that’s the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. He held calls with both teams at different points.”

While Lillard’s injury status is obviously worrying, he was still one of the best scorers in the league last season when he was healthy. In 58 games with the Bucks, Lillard averaged 24.9 points, 7.1 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting 44.8% from the field.

Had Boston signed Lillard, he likely would not have contributed to their 2025-26 team. If he returned for the 2026-27 season and rediscovered his previous form, though, that would have given the Celtics a lethal core group by pairing him up with Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White.

Instead, the front office swung and missed, and now they have to pivot and look at other options. While not much has happened over the past couple of weeks, Brad Stevens and company are still hard at work, which means more moves will likely be made in the near future.