Okay, I don’t expect anyone to agree with this, particularly because my knee-jerk reaction to the rumor was absolutely not. This is purely my opinion on where we are as an organization and how I feel as a fan. And I should add the caveat that I don’t know what it would take to get him. But I’m zooming out and looking at where we are, and I actually think it makes a lot of sense for a bunch of reasons.

Also maybe I’m just preparing myself for something I have a feeling could happen, and don’t want to be mired in disappointment when it does. But anyway…

1. We need a way to get off Ben. The Blazers would go right into rebuild mode, and they can stand to take a flyer on him. If he ascends again, he becomes a cornerstone. If he doesn’t, the young guys get minutes. Without our draft picks, and with us putting money into Mikal and presumably CamJ, there’s not much incentive for us to struggle.

2. We lack scoring. Lillard provides that, and takes pressure off of Mikal.

3. Lillard seems respected around the league. If, after the disaster of losing three superstars, two of whom miss no opportunity to trash talk us, one forces his way to us to play with Mikal, that both helps us maintain this window of not forever playing second fiddle to the Knicks and elevates Mikal’s image as a worthy centerpiece on a contender. I don’t think Mikal could recruit many guys on his own, but he and Dame absolutely could. And I don’t even mean superstars. I mean solid contributors who need some hook to sign somewhere. I don’t want to lose out to the currently rising Knicks.

4. Yeah, Marks is a solid drafter (I still argue he’s a bit overrated imo, but he generally finds good value wherever he picks). But we’re on year two of CamT and Sharpe and the two hardly play. I’m assuming any rookie we draft would be at least three years out from getting a solid chance, unless we go into full rebuild mode, which seems like a waste of Mikal. If we can swing even keeping one pick this year who can develop while we contend, I’m fine with dumping those distant future picks. Too many unknowns there.

5. Clax is a FA after next season and will certainly court attention from contenders. To my knowledge because of his contract status he can easily walk. If we aren’t winning, will he want to stay?

6. I don’t get the sense Marks wanted CamT. Seems like it was another small move to try to make KD happy. I love him, but his attitude and style don’t seem to fit the culture Marks wants to build. If he isn’t going to get a chance, we should sell high and put him in a position to play a bunch of minutes on a rebuilding team that would likely love him.

7. I was at the game on Friday. We’re making progress in fan base market share, but you can still feel we’re lagging. The deflation of losing KD and Kyrie could really kill the momentum we had. I think pairing Dame and Mikal here could help us get some of that back.

I don’t think this makes us a championship contender, but I think it puts us comfortably in the playoff (not play-in) picture for the foreseeable future. I’d honestly rather have that than languish around the play-in and hopefully sell a superstar on joining us (and potentially being in a really rough spot if we can’t swing that). Plus Dame is fun to watch and I would lose my mind rooting for him. I won’t be bummed if we don’t or can’t get him, but I feel better about the possibility.