Damian Lillard on his minutes plan at 36: ‘I’m a live body,’ and he won’t sit out back-to-backs

Damian Lillard wants to clear something up before his first regular-season game in a year and a half. He is 36, he is going to play fewer minutes than he used to, and none of that, he says, makes him an old man.

“I know I’m 36, and we’ve had conversations about, you know, I’m not going to be playing 38 minutes per night,” Lillard said Monday after Portland’s practice. “But I will say I’m a live body. I’ve taken care of myself for years and years and years on and off the floor. And I don’t want it to be misunderstood. I’m not an old man.”

Lillard tore his left Achilles tendon in the 2025 playoffs while with Milwaukee, re-signed with the Trail Blazers that July and spent all of 2025-26 rehabbing in Portland. He returned this preseason and averaged 17.3 points in about 22 minutes over three games, making 8 of 21 threes and all 18 of his free throws, including a 23-point night against Golden State in Friday’s finale.

A minutes plan, not a protection plan

Lillard said the reduced workload is about the long season, not his body. “I want to be responsible and take care of myself because of how many years I have played and the wear and tear, the miles, they add up,” he said. “It’s important to be smart because I want to be healthy for the entire season. And when we get to the postseason, I want to be fresh. And we have the luxury to make that happen.”

That luxury is Portland’s guard room. Lillard now shares the backcourt with Ja Morant, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson, and coach Micah Nori has said he plans to play 10 deep. Lillard expects some nights to run longer, but he does not plan to sit out back-to-backs. “I plan on playing in games,” he said. “I’m open to being smart. But I’m not limping into the season. I wouldn’t say I need to be protected.”

Why playing off the ball feels like a luxury

The bigger change for a player who spent 11 seasons running Portland’s offense is how often he is now waiting for the ball instead of bringing it up. Lillard said that is part of why his body held up in the preseason.

“In the preseason, I think I played right at 20 minutes one game, then maybe 23 minutes another game, 25 another game, and I didn’t walk away from any of those games feeling taxed or achy at all,” he said. “Some people might say it’s preseason, but after being out for a year, you would think it would be hard to recover. I think a lot of that is because I’m not having to work so hard to bring the ball up, to create advantages, to beat so many people.”

He called it a chance “to show layers to who I am as a player, where I don’t have to have the ball the whole time.”

He likes the small lineups that come with that roster, too. Asked about a second-quarter group against Golden State that included him, Henderson and Donovan Clingan, he said teams across the league are going smaller to play with pace. “You’re going to be able to switch a lot of things,” he said. “You’re going to have multiple ball handlers out there, multiple guys that can get into the paint and make that next play, guys that can make threes.”

“I don’t feel emotional about it at all”

For all the attention on his return, Lillard said Wednesday’s opener against Phoenix will not be the emotional moment. That came last year. “It was more emotional when I first signed back to play here,” he said. “I was like, man, that was what I wanted to see happen. And it did. I was a part of the team last year. I was in the building. I was around. So I think now it’s more about me, to be honest, where I’m just excited to be actually able to play.”

He also praised Nori’s after-timeout plays, saying every step has an option and “there’s no wasted cuts, there’s no wasted time.” Lillard admitted he sometimes walks into the coach’s office just to read what is on his whiteboard. “I like to show my age a little bit,” he said, laughing.

What Portland most needs to fix, in his view, is simple: defensive rebounding and turnovers. “With the kind of talent we have offensively, I think we should be trying to get a shot up every time down,” Lillard said. “In this league, if you give teams two and three opportunities, it’s going to be hard to come up with a stop in the end.”

The Trail Blazers host the Suns at the Moda Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT, which is 5 a.m. Thursday in Cairo.