To an extent, the Trail Blazers already entered the offseason straddling two timelines with Anfernee Simons and Deandre Ayton, but both were young enough to be considered part of their young core had Portland decided to commit to them long-term.
Time will tell whether moving on from both players was in their best interest. Unsurprisingly, they did, but the idea was to move on from them to clear the path for recent top ten picks Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and Donovan Clingan. The Blazers had other plans, such as bringing in Yang Hansen, Jrue Holiday, and now Damian Lillard.