12-Year NBA Veteran Gets Honest About Damian Lillard Getting Waived

The NBA has been all over the place in the calendar year of 2025. The Dallas Mavericks traded away Luka Doncic at the trade deadline, only to land the number one pick and select one of the best college prospects in recent memory with Duke’s Cooper Flagg. Since then, surprising moves have continued to happen.

However, a move that seemingly caught everyone off guard was Damian Lillard, as he was waived by the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason to make room for the team to sign Myles Turner to a four-year deal. With Lillard recovering from an Achilles injury, the Bucks showed no patience as they moved on from the multi-time All-Star.

Someone who is always giving his thoughts on NBA news and trades is ex-Chicago Bulls and Bucks guard Patrick Beverley. When asked about the shocking move by Milwaukee, Beverley broke it down from the perspective of a player.

“As soon as I get hurt and I know I’m out for the next year, I’m already thinking like, man, it’s going to be hard for them to build around a person, you know, of my age. I understand that, like that’s the business part of it,” Beverley shared. However, Beverley said if you asked him if Lillard was going to be waived this summer, he would’ve bet against it happening.

Before being waived, Lillard was set to have two years and $112.5 million owed on his remaining contract. By waiving him, the Bucks had to stretch his remaining salary, since the NBA only allows a maximum of 15% of the salary cap for the stretch provision.

Therefore, Lillard will be owed $22.5 million per year over the next five seasons with Milwaukee, which will be a hit against their cap. So, even though they brought in Myles Turner as a result, the reality is the Bucks are paying Lillard to not be on the team anymore.

Lillard, as has been announced, has agreed to a three-year deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, returning to the team he was drafted by and became a star with. His new deal with Portland will pay him ~$14 million annually, but by factoring in the money from the stretch provision, he’ll make ~$36.5 million over each of the next three seasons.

Returning to a young Portland team, Lillard and newly acquired guard Jrue Holiday will look to provide mentorship and leadership to their young players. The hope will be that Holiday and Lillard can help develop Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe into the future backcourt for Portland, and they should be able to contend for the postseason in the 2026-27 season when Lillard returns.

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