Dame will have to play 38-40 min

[Serbian]

Michael Jordan from age 31-35 played 82 games averaging 39/40 min per game for 4 years streight . So did karl malone and john stocked , all old school kats played close to 40 min and with inferior science and recovery knowledge. Dame is at his peak as much we say “ gonna run him to ground “ He should be physically capable of doing so, he is very strong and durable with limited injury history knock on wood. There is no choice now. We may never win title its only been 44 years ....at least Let Dame shoot 25x per game like kobe and Jordan and enjoy the fireworks of his greatness.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

I'm afraid he'll also have to stop playing defense, too.

 

[Bruno_Sabino]

I’m just afraid he gets injury. Otherwise he’ll find a way for us to make the playoffs

 

[wizenheimer]

my questions are: why does he have to? What would the Blazers actually gain? 2 or 3 more wins?

is that really worth grinding Dame into the floor?

my suggestion: play him 32 minutes a game, no more. Force the roster to make up for it's flaws, not Dame. If the losses add up, so what? That would just get Portland closer to a lottery pick in a really good draft

 

[riverman]

If Dame needs rest he needs to put teams away early or get blown out because every superstar in the NBA is playing big minutes ...Harden played over 40 a game without training camp so far....and 10 games are shaved off the season...travel schedules are easier....Dame won't complain nor should he..he's doing what he loves...he addressed being fine in Portland without ring chasing win or lose...I like that

 

[GDiama]

Michael Jordan from age 31-35 played 82 games averaging 39/40 min per game for 4 years streight . So did karl malone and john stocked , all old school kats played close to 40 min and with inferior science and recovery knowledge. Dame is at his peak as much we say “ gonna run him to ground “ He should be physically capable of doing so, he is very strong and durable with limited injury history knock on wood. There is no choice now. We may never win title its only been 44 years ....at least Let Dame shoot 25x per game like kobe and Jordan and enjoy the fireworks of his greatness.

Not sure if you are jocking but the game is much faster nowadays. They play way more possessions and Dame will be guarded heavily on each one of them.

 

[blazerkor]

I think Dame is going to play around 38 minutes per game during this stretch and I don't think it's going to wear him out. Dame averaged 37.5 minutes per game last season and before you point out that he ended his post season with an injury remember, he only has to play right around his average last season until CJ gets back.

To win games, which we can, we need guys in place to beat traps and then we get open threes because of four on three situations. When Dame gets penetration and kicks it out to an open guy we have to hit our threes. We need to get our inside scorers (DJJ, Enes and Harry) touches around the whole for high percentage baskets. We need Dame to shoot the lights out and score at the bucket.

Defense is a little simpler but not easier. We just need to stay attached. We need to play as a team. None of our guys are specifically great on ball defenders, RoCo, DJJ, Gary, at one point Hoodie and possibly Harry seem to be good one on one defenders but they're not great and are all better team defenders. If they can cover for Dame and let him expend little energy on defense, Dame can go supernova on offense.

We also need to rebound the fucking ball that was asinine last game to give up so many offensive boards and get outrebounded overall by 12.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Perhaps we should take note of the 2018-19 season. Near the end of the year, we lost Nurk and CJ. We won our next 6 games and 8 of 9. Then CJ came back and we won our last 3 games (he & Dame sat out the last one) and we snagged the #3 seed. My point is this team has played without these guys before and it didn't take herculean performances from Dame during that streak. We actually had a blowout win in which Dame only scored 11 points! It takes a team effort. Granted, we had Seth Curry but Hood and Trent are decent. We can do this. And it is wayyyyyy too early to call this a lost season. We are only 2.5 games out of #1 seed with 58 games to play. And the #1 seed really doesn't mean anything anyway. Just finish Top 6 and you're good. We can do that. Come playoff time, having DJJ and Covington will make a difference. Who gives a shit about the regular season?