Damian Lillard, Blazers agree to two-year, $122 million max extension
Damian Lillard has agreed to a two-year, $122 million max extension with the Portland Trail Blazers, it was announced Friday. The Athletic‘s Shams Charania was first with the report, while Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes was the first with the financial details.
Lillard, who had three more years left for roughly $137 million entering 2022-23, per Spotrac, will now be on contract through 2026-27. ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported that the final year of the deal will be a player option. Spotrac also projects the first year of the new contract to be worth roughly $58.5 million.
Last year marked the first year when Lillard didn’t play in at least 65 games, playing in just 29 after undergoing abdominal surgery in January and getting shut down towards the end of the season with Portland out of playoff contention.
He averaged 24.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, shooting 40.2 percent from the floor and 32.4 percent from 3-point range — both career lows. That’s after coming off of two of the best years of his career, where he notched 29.4 combined points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.0 steals on 45.7/39.6/90.7 shooting splits (62.5 TS%).
He’s made six All-Star games and six All-NBA teams — one on the first-team, four on the second-team and one on the third-team. Now, he looks to return to form and is tasked with getting the Blazers back into the playoff hunt after going 27-55 in 2021-22. The team acquired Jerami Grant in late June, re-signed Jusuf Nurkic to a four-year deal and drafted Shaedon Sharpe No. 7 overall.
P.S. If anyone can contact Lillard to potentially donate a fraction of his salary to VSM, that’d be great. Thanks.
This is breaking news. Stay tuned for details.
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