Portland's Pursuit of Paul Millsap: Sincerity or Strategy?

In the next couple of days, everyone I have talked to suspects, Utah will match the offer that the Portland Trail Blazers have made to Paul Millsap, and the whole thing will be seen as no big deal. Except in Utah, where they will feel like victims, because they'll feel a ton of financial pain. They may even have the idea that Portland completed the whole exercise not to get Millsap, but simply to make problems for Utah. (Problems that, it must be acknowledged, could induce the Jazz to shed salaries, and no team is better positioned to help shed salaries than ... Portland.) A key question is: Does Portland really want Paul Millsap? On one level, I think any team would like the guy -- he's a very effective player, and the Blazers have expressed an urge to get tougher. But Portland has been storing up this cap space for ages, and they won't have space again, essentially, forever, after the re-sign their core players. They have young talent and could make all kinds of lop-si...