It was the right move for Damian Lillard this week to use his exit interview with the Trail Blazers season to go on offense.

What did you expect, defense?

Lillard told reporters he's confident about negotiations with the Blazers this summer, and won't consider any deal short of the designated maximum contract extension. We're talking $90 million plus and five years. And so it appears that a player who isn't yet a max-contract talent is set to attempt to leverage the Blazers into just that.

It was a shrewd move by Lillard, no doubt orchestrated by his agent, Aaron Goodwin. Remember, it was Goodwin who leveraged Blazers owner Paul Allen into giving another client, Damon Stoudamire, more than $72 million in guaranteed contract after he acquired him from Toronto.

At the time, Goodwin and Stoudamire threatened to sit out training camp and sold the notion that the Blazers were getting more than just a guard. They were getting an ambassador for the franchise, a hometown guy, and the signing -- albeit about $30 million over market value -- sent a message publicly to free agents that Portland had blank checks.

Interesting times, for these Blazers. Because during the same Thursday exit interviews Portland general manager Neil Olshey publicly declared that money would never be an obstacle as long as Allen owned the team. Not sure that was the wise play at the poker table given that Goodwin and Lillard were listening. Compound that with the fact that Goodwin already watched Allen fold once before and I can't say that I'm surprised Lillard felt so cavalier about making the announcement.

But there was much more here, wasn't there?

Because the prevailing fear in Portland is that LaMarcus Aldridge already has his bags packed. The Blazers will position themselves to be a player but if Aldridge doesn't want to be here, there's not much Olshey and Allen can do about it. He's an unrestricted free agent and his decision will presumably be about more than money given that Aldridge already has more than he can spend in this lifetime.

There's a lot at play here for the Blazers, and especially Allen. The billionaire won a Super Bowl with his NFL franchise, and should have won a second. But he feels far away from an NBA championship and, in fact, he's watched a newcomer to the ownership circle this season (old Microsoft employee No. 30 Steve Ballmer) blow past the company co-founder in his first NBA season. I wonder, on multiple levels, how that will affect Allen's enthusiasm. And I'll bet Goodwin does as well.

We've seen this movie before, haven't we?

Lillard's play here, like Stoudamire once did, is to announce early and aggressively that he wants to stay in Portland long-term as long as the Blazers give him the security and respect of overpaying for his services. Buried in his negotiation, however, is the notion that if the organization declines to play ball with Lillard they're really just announcing they're not striving to stay competitive in the West. In this, they'd just be giving Aldridge an early excuse to leave for another franchise.

Goodwin is great at what he does. He's especially deft at reading timing and using promotion and leverage. Lillard, if he commits to becoming a better defender, has a chance to elevate his game from good to great. A fair chunk of his initially reported $100 million sneaker deal with Adidas was tied to incentives, which makes sense of Lillard's heated reaction at not initially being picked for the All-Star team.

If we learned anything in the Blazers first-round playoff series loss to Memphis, it's that Lillard needs help to win. He's not capable of carrying a team alone like a max-contract player in the league ideally should. He's Robin. The Blazers still need to find Batman and put him by Lillard's side.

Again, the early move was the right play for Camp Lillard. But increasingly tricky times for Allen and Olshey. I called around and spoke with a couple of NBA executives who are watching this Lillard development with curiosity. Not because they'd want to make an offer to Lillard themselves, but because they're curious if the Blazers really can announce that money isn't an issue and then attempt to make it one. Also, they want to know if Allen will become a free spender or a hardliner given some of his sketchy history with contracts (See: Brandon Roy) that burned him.

The long-term play belongs to Allen, who has to decide how interested and energized he is at the thought of attempting what amounts to a quick rebuild should Aldridge bolt. But the short-term action is now Olshey's game. The Blazers GM needs to read the unfolding negotiations and react in a way that doesn't appear needy and desperate.

--- @JohnCanzanoBFT