“There’s been times where he’s like D, shoot the f***ing ball, stop doing this, stop doing that, and I be like alright, or he’ll yell at me from the bench, or I’ll yell at him,” Lillard said. “Like C, in transition, you got to see me on the opposite side. He be like alright, I got you, and it’s a situation like that. “We agreed that we would have that type of like acceptance, I guess, in our interactions and what the other would have to say. I haven’t gone back on it and neither has he.”

Whether their relationship and their joint job security translate to meaningful victories and status among the Trail Blazers’ hierarchy remains to be seen. They do not yet have the resume of the Blazers’ most accomplished tandem — Terry Porter and Clyde Drexler — but it’s clear the table has been set for what could be a prolific run. “It’s a special time,” McCollum said Tuesday, hours after his extension leaked. “(He and Lillard) talked about being in Portland, making a staple here and winning a championship here, and all those things. We’ve crossed off a lot of goals individually and collectively, but I think that both of us being here for the long haul, and both of us being able to grow together and win together is something that people will remember for a long time.”

“You heard it all the time — that they can’t win with Dame and CJ,” said Eric Goodwin, whose company represents Lillard. “But I don’t believe that for a second. For one, I think you need a Robin to every Batman. And you can have two guys who can score … but if they had one more player who was a play-maker — a Draymond Green-type player — this team would be scary good. “But these guys make sure it’s a team,” Goodwin said. “The whole idea of the team has become fraggled these days. It’s, ‘let’s get the best players together and now we have a team’ … that’s not a real team. A real team goes through ups and downs together. And this whole summer, these two guys had getting swept looming over their heads.

Joe Freeman: Damian Lillard on the narrative that he and CJ McCollum need to be split up: “I don’t agree with it. I think it’s that simple. I think it’s the easiest thing to say. I don’t agree with it.”