What the cruel injury of Damian Lillard Achille means for the bucks and their star stars

THE fearsIt turns out that was founded. Damian Lillard broke his left Achille tendon on Sunday evening – an injury that considerably modifies the career of a player named One of the 75 largest in the history of the NBAAnd this can effectively end the chances of the Milwaukee Bucks to compete for the NBA championships in what remains of the administration of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In sober, terms on the ground: losing Lillard – 10th in the NBA in points And aid per game during the regular season and 11th Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus – removes the best option from the bucks to reduce the score burden and shooting in antetokounmpo, which is on average At the top of the 33.8 points per game qualifying series.

The inability to defend the younger, deeper and more explosive pacers was the biggest milwaukee problem in this first round match, Indiana marking a burning 120.2 points per 100 possessions through four games. Given how improbable it would be that older and slower dollars suddenly start to tighten, however, the chance of their most realistic punch to return from a deficit of 3-1 rested with the fight with fire; Without a lady, Milwaukee's prospects to beat Indiana three consecutive times are practically zero.

This would leave the Bucks without victory of the eliminatory series in three years, after being exceeded in the hierarchy of the Eastern Conference by the Cavaliers, the Celtics, the Knicks and the Pacers. This would make them incapable of accessing the theory of affirmations on which the entire current state of the franchise is constructed – that the Giannis -Dame partnership could be powerful enough to submerge even elite opposition – for at least a year, and perhaps forever.

This would let the bucks rush to find avenues to improve a list that will see Brook Lopez, Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr. Strong a free agency without restriction, and which could see the key reserves Bobby Portis and Kevin Porter Jr. by exercising their player options. There may not be many ways available, however: thanks to 2020 trade who brought Jrue Holiday to Milwaukee and Deal 2023 Who sent a vacation to Portland for Lillard, the Bucks have Exchange control of their first round choice each season by 2030, and they only have one Pair of future secondsincluding The 47th choice In the draft of the NBA in June 2025.

Besides that, Milwaukee is projected To have $ 133.7 million in books next season for only three players: Antetokounmpo, still one MVP caliber interpreter under contract for two more seasons with a Player option of $ 62.8 million in the summer of 2027; Lillard, who is only now about to start the Extension of contract at most of $ 112.6 million over two years that the Trail Blazers returned it in the summer of 2022; and striker Kyle Kuzma, whose play since his arrival from Washington on the February trade deadline In exchange for the longtime franchise, the song of the Khddleton Khris franchise was simply disastrous. It is a scenario of creation of a nightmarish list, a horrible blow of bad luck, which allowed the bill because of the years of moves now for the most – and the kind of thing that could make Milwaukee must seriously contemplate the unthinkable.

At a very basic human level: Lillard descends like that less than a week after his return from a blood clot in his right calf – an end -of -season affliction that many expected Would put the touch for the rest of the bucks season, only to recover faster than “Has (never) been seen before” – is simply unfathomable cruel.

“I knew it right away”, the head coach of the Bucks Doc Rivers Tell to journalists After match 4. “I felt bad for him; the guy tried to come back for his team. I just felt bad for him.”

Damian Lillard seemed to be incredulous after having torn his Achilles in match 4. (Photo of Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

(Stacy Revere via Getty Images)

Although he did not play particularly well after having spent more than a month in street clothes, barely pulling 6 for 25 on the ground in matches 2 and 3, it was always remarkable to see Lillard making such an astonishing and fiery return to a team of Bucks fighting for his life in the playoffs against the rival pacers. Seeing him place the match 4 at six minutes – the immediate range of his heel, the seated installation fixed in the rear area while the game was moving without him, the inability to put weight on this left leg while his teammates and coaches helped him get out of the field – was the stomach.

“When you see a guy like it can't work alone, you know it could be serious and you hope that is the best of cases”, Antetokounmpo Tell to journalists After the match. “And for the moment, we just hope that it is the best case for him, for his health. That's almost everything. It's difficult.”

This evoked the brutality of the heart to see Kevin during the way back from a path calf strain To return to the Warriors in the middle of the 2019 NBA final … then find yourself, after only 12 minutes, in this same sitting position, making the same range of his heel and facing The same long and unfathomable intimidating Road to come.

How during the way this route offers a glimmer of hope in a dark moment for Lillard, the Bucks and the NBA fans. After missing all the NBA 2019-20 season recovering from his tech of Achille, during a on average 27.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 36.2 minutes per game on .645 Trum shooting During five post -blue seasons – almost identical Statistics to what he had produced during the decade before his break -up – with four star -headed nods, two two two -NBA team selections and a pair of 10 best MVPs. Whatever the other problems that participated in the latest KD's half-decade in Brooklyn, Phoenix and Probably soon elsewhereFrom a pure point of view between the lines, he made the impossible: he resumed Play like Kevin Durant.

But cases as during – and, before him, Dominique Wilkins – represent many of the exceptions to The established rule: That players who undergo this particular injury are never really the same.

While the for 6 feet 11 inch could always fall back on the possibility of adapting his game to be More like the late model Dirk Nowitzki If he lost a step on the sporting level after the surroundings, the 6 -feet 2 -inch lillage depends more on the speed, agility and the ability to suddenly change the dribbling directions to create space against longer defenders – all the attributes that would seem less likely to bounce on a surgically distribution Achilles. Perhaps more significant, however: while for 30 years when he suffered his injury, Lillard is less than three months from his 35th birthday.

Lillard is actually 54 more days that Kobe Bryant was When he torn her Achille – a break that, like that of Lillard, came During the opening tour NBA 2013 qualifiers; who kept it on the shelf for almost eight months Before a brief return was reduced by a Fractured left knee; And from which he would never completely rebound in his form before the injury of the fame of fame.

In the season before his injury, Bryant collected on average 27.3 points out of 46.3% shots, 5.6 rebounds and 6.0 assists in 38.6 minutes per match – figures which, on a basis per minute / by possession, are Incredibly similar to Lillard this season. In the two seasons After his return, however, he collected an average of 19.2 points out of 36.4% shots, 4.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 30.4 minutes per match – the type of sharp drop in production and efficiency expected For players who come back from this injury.

Gyry did have your moments in both seasons after its return: a Triple-double 31 points in a prolongation victory over the raptors, suspended 44 on Golden State And 38 on wolvesAnd of course, the Maximalist show of 60 points in his final. For the most part, the version of Kobe that we saw after the tear rarely looked like his predecessor of superstar – as was the case for approaching cousins and John Wall, as was the case for Klay Thompson, and as has been the case for the most part who have experienced what is considered to be the most devastating injury that a basketball player can undergo.

This is the challenge that Lillard is confronted with: a more important and more painful obstacle than anything he encountered during a career intended for Springfield which presented nine stars posts, seven all-NBA selections and five top-eight MVP voting finishes. The embrace of the version transported Lillard d'Oakland and the state of Weber to the ranks of the Immortals, one of the Just 11 players never With at least 22,000 points and 6,000 assists. Now he will have to transport him even further – on a trip that starts before he can even take a single step.

“It's hard to be in his position, but he is one of the most difficult and most difficult guys mentally that I have ever experienced,” said Antetokounmpo said. “And that is why he is who he is, and I think he will overcome all the obstacles that will be in front of him.”

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