Dub Hub: Damian Lillard returns to Trail Blazers, passes on hometown Warriors

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Friday, July 18th.

In today’s Dub Hub:

• Damian Lillard decides to return to the Trail Blazers, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
• Warriors lose to the Raptors, 81-69, in their second-to-last game of the Las Vegas Summer League
• ESPN’s Dotun Akintoye publishes a deep-dive feature exploring the complex journey of Joel Embiid’s NBA career.

Just like every other free agent this offseason, point guard Damian Lillard will not be signing with his hometown team, the Golden State Warriors. Despite early rumors potentially linking him to Golden State, Lillard has reportedly decided to return to his NBA roots—rejoining the Portland Trail Blazers on a three-year, $42 million deal, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Lillard, 35, was traded from Portland to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2023 in a blockbuster deal that included Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, and two pick swaps.

While he showed flashes of promise alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lillard’s time with the Bucks was ultimately derailed by inconsistency and injuries. His tenure came to a devastating halt during last season’s playoffs when he tore his Achilles in Game 4 of the Bucks’ first-round series against the Indiana Pacers.

With the Bucks in desperate need of a reset, the franchise waived Lillard this offseason—absorbing a significant amount of dead cap space in the process—in order to create room to sign free-agent center Myles Turner.

Despite needing a year to rehab his Achilles injury, multiple teams still expressed interest in signing Lillard after his release—including the Warriors. Though it’s hard to believe Golden State was ever in serious consideration for him given the fit and the team’s urgency to win now, in the end, Lillard chose to return to Portland—the franchise that drafted him sixth overall in 2012, the city he once famously pledged loyalty to, and the home where he will rightfully finish the rest of his career.

For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Friday, July 18th:

Warriors News:

‘A LOT OF WORK TO DO’ Bobby Marks talks Warriors’ roster + Dame reunion in Portland?! | NBA Today

NBA 2K26 Summer League: Raptors roll past Warriors, secure spot in semifinals | NBA

The Warriors (2-2) had just one player in double figures, with Chris Manon amassing 14 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks. Will Richard tallied seven points, five rebounds and four assists. Taran Armstrong led the bench with eight points, five rebounds and two assists.

Golden State’s final game of the Summer League will be a consolation matchup on Saturday against an unknown opponent. Toronto has advanced to Saturday’s semifinals with its perfect record and will face either the Sacramento Kings or the Los Angeles Clippers. The Charlotte Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder are the other two teams in the semis.

Why Quinten Post wasn’t included on Warriors’ 2025 NBA Summer League roster | NBC Sports Bay Area

An ankle injury flaring up before the California Classic is the culprit behind Post’s summer league absence, the SF Standard’s Danny Emmerman reported Tuesday. It was an inujury that Post dealt with throughout the second half of the 2024-25 NBA season, and it appears Golden State wasn’t keen on taking any risks with the sharpshooting big man.

Emmerman’s report also notes that Post spent time working out in Golden State’s facility while taking in the games themselves from a courtside seat in Las Vegas.

How watching Warriors convinced Will Richard to change sports and transform his body | San Francisco Chronicle

When Richard would shoot in Ooltewah, then still “a big chunky kid” per his dad, he would stretch his range past 30 feet, inspired by Curry and teammate Klay Thompson. He fancied the Warriors “for the way they play. … They play a fun brand of basketball. They play together. They have fun with it. They shoot a lot of threes, cuts, all that. … Just play the right way.”

They drafted Richard to play that way with them.

Said Richard: “This is where I wanted to be.”

NBA insider Marc Sten says the ‘likely scenario’ is Jonathan Kuminga staying with the Warriors

NBA News:

Sources: Damian Lillard reaches deal to return to Trail Blazers | ESPN

Lillard will use the 2025-26 season to rehabilitate his injury, but a return to the franchise and Portland, where his family and children reside were of the ultimate importance, per sources. He also had multiple midlevel exception and minimum offers from NBA contenders, per sources.

Portland traded Lillard to the Bucks for Jrue Holiday, Toumani Camara, and assets in 2023 and then sent Holiday to the Boston Celtics for Robert Williams III, Malcolm Brogdon and assets (one led to Deni Avdija).

Now, the Blazers have both Lillard and Holiday (reacquired in a trade with the Celtics this offseason), plus Avdija, Williams, Camara, a 2029 first-rounder and two Bucks pick swaps

Joel Embiid sees you | ESPN

“No one knows this, but even James [Harden] is not talking to me,” Embiid tells me. “That’s the part I don’t like about being ‘that guy,’ because it puts you in the middle of those situations. Because if you ask James, he probably believes I had something to do with him not being here. And I’m just like, ‘I won the scoring title. You won the assists title. We had a pick-and-roll that was unstoppable.’”

“It hurts when you feel like you haven’t done anything wrong,” he continues. “When you think you have a relationship like that with somebody … you lose a lot.”

Schedule for the final weekend of Las Vegas Summer League

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

The trade deadline makes more sense for Jonathan Kuminga

My thought was that it was worth giving Kuminga and the new-look roster a full camp to iron out the wrinkles and see if they could make things work. And if not, well … it seemed unlikely that his trade value would be much worse in February than in July.

Now, after a silent and somewhat boring rollercoaster of a start to free agency for Kuminga and the Warriors, I’m once again returning to that conclusion … but for very different reasons.

A tweets to end the week:

Follow @unstoppablebaby on Twitter for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.