Report: Damian Lillard diagnosed with torn left Achilles

Confirmation sets Lillard on course for long absence from the court

When Damian Lillard went down last night on a non-contact injury and was immediately taken to the locker room during the Milwaukee Bucks 129-103 defeat to the Indiana Pacers, you knew the prognosis was probably pretty grim. Flash reporting in the moment did nothing to assuage those concerns, and today we finally have confirmation: Damian Lillard has torn his left Achilles tendon.

We’ve had an evening and morning to process and prepare for this possibility, although it is still a gut punch to get the official word on it. The loss of Lillard prior to a do-or-die Game 5 tomorrow night in Indianapolis is bad enough. Much worse are the potential cascade of consequences that trail from this turn of events.

Like last night, let’s begin at the personal: such a sequence has to be something of a mind bender for Lillard after he was able to get back from a March DVT diagnosis. He took on a heavy minute load out of the gate in Game 2 and looked rusty doing it, but he was out there and looked physically capable. That he now faces what is likely a completely lost season and grueling road to recovery from surgery must be massively daunting. He’ll be in good professional care, yet he will now have to spend most of the next 12-plus months rehabbing largely on his own with the medical staff. Lillard has the kind of competitive mindset that he can push through the strain. It remains a massive strain, though. Any catastrophic failure of the body results in a sort of soul searching by necessity. We wish him luck on that journey.

For the Bucks the news is obviously a disaster of a different order. Lillard is owed around $54 million in the 2025-2026 season which he has a high chance of missing. After that, he has a player option estimated around $58 million for 2026-2027 — I’ve a feeling he will be picking that option up come hell or high water. At age 34, such an injury is likely to put a damper on Lillard’s athleticism when he returns to the court at 35 or 36 (depending on how long his recovery timeline runs). He’ll have taken a hit, then, as both a tool on the court and as an asset off of it; any ideas kicking around about exploring his trade value can now be put to bed.

In 2025-2026 the Bucks can try to apply for a Disabled Player Exception (DPE) to free up some space to sign a guy on a one-year deal. If the Bucks apply for it and an NBA-designated physician agrees that Lillard is “substantially more likely than not” to be sidelined through June 15th of a given year’s league calendar, they will be allowed to sign a player for up to the MLE (~$12.8 million this season). That signing is good for one season only and a DPE does not increase the number of full-roster slots Milwaukee can work with. Dame will take up a 15 man spot regardless of the league’s ruling. Still, some reinforcement is better than nothing at all. And, after all, the Bucks could apply for a DPE and be denied it by the league if the physician thinks Dame could be back and available prior to June 2026.

After all, Kobe Bryant came back (relatively) quickly from his late-career Achilles tear:

Of course, the greatest cloud lies about the state of the franchise. Burning their last reserves of draft capital to acquire Lillard pushed them onto a very tight competitive timeline. They have not been notably competitive on said timeline. That’s down to bad injury luck, head coach chaos, and much else besides. Getting under the second apron thanks to the Khris Middleton-Kyle Kuzma trade will grant them a modicum of flexibility when it comes to roster building this summer, but missing a guy taking up $54 million of your cap sheet will put a massive dent in how far they can go next season.

Should Giannis Antetokounmpo remain committed to the franchise, however, there could also be some room for experimentation and adjustment in style of play in a pivot from the last remnants of the title-winning core. I won’t even bother trying to sell you on there being a real silver lining; I’d be just as off-base, however, to write as if all is a foregone conclusion and that the horizon of action has been reduced to nil. This is a truly terrible spot to be in, but someone has to suit up and play the games—it is up to GM Jon Horst to figure out who and how the team can rescue something from what could be a rocky upcoming regular season.