TORONTO, ON – JANUARY 6: Damian Lillard #0 of the Milwaukee Bucks moves the ball against the Toronto … More
After being ruled out of Sunday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard has been diagnosed with a torn achilles. Lillard recently returned from a deep vein thrombosis injury, which causes clots in the blood. Now the soon-to-be 35 year old star guard has another injury to battle back from.
Lillard’s achilles injury at this stage of the season and of his career makes it a question of how he will perform when he eventually makes his way back on an NBA court. We do have previous cases of older stars being able to return and be productive after an achilles injury and hopefully that will be the case for Lillard. Recently, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant had achilles injuries which sidelined them for extended periods of time, and they both have returned and remained prominent NBA players.
Thompson tore his achilles in November of 2020, and he made his return in January of 2022. Since his return in 2022, Thompson was able to play in 69 or more games in every season, while playing over 27 minutes per game in every season as well. In Thompson’s case he was clearly a different player post injury, but he was still able to contribute to winning on an NBA court.
Durant injured his achilles in the NBA finals and returned to action 552 days later. Durant was able to return to playing at an All-NBA level after injuring his achilles. He did look a bit slower after the injury, but all things considered, he has been able to play at a high level for multiple seasons after his achilles injury.
Unfortunately, in both Durant and Thompson’s cases they were both younger at the time of their injury than Lillard is currently. Durant and Thompson were in their early 30’s, while Lillard is in his mid 30s currently. The extra miles on his body could negatively impact Lillard’s recovery, but hopefully he is able to return and be most of the player he once was.
