If the Blazers want to sell Damian Lillard on contending, trading Norman Powell for nothing was a bad start

CJ McCollum feels like the next domino to fall, and after that, how long will Lillard be in Portland?

Norman Powell is a really good player, and the Portland Trail Blazers just traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers, in essence, to save money. The move allowed the Blazers to duck under the luxury-tax line while taking back Keon Johnson, Eric Bledsoe and Justise Winslow, the latter two of whom come off the books in the summer of 2023, whereas Powell is in the first year of a five-year, $90 million contract that runs through 2026. 

If you want, you can spin this that Portland is trying to create more financial flexibility to continue building around Damian Lillard, but I find that story tough to buy. Even if the Blazers renounce everyone possible, save for Anfernee Simons, they're going to be over the salary cap this summer. They could trade CJ McCollum for a bunch of expiring deals to try to create some room in 2023, but Lillard will be 33 years old by then. 

So now Powell, McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic are gone. Since when did Portland, even with a little cap space, become a free-agent hotbed that is going to attract a bunch of big-time players to not serve as just replacements for McCollum, Powell and Nurkic, but actual upgrades?