as several have said, a player will have a limited amount of energy to expend in a game, or a season, and Dame has been carrying one of the heaviest loads in the NBA for years. Being the #1 scoring option, especially in clutch time ("save us again, Dame!"), as well as the only player on the team consistently able to run the offense is a heavy burden. Dame has broad shoulders but they aren't broad enough to support him going all out on defense it needs to be noted again that Portland's season turned around late in the Indiana game when Dame asked to guard Brogdon and shut him down. Dame has always been decent at guarding size. Even though they lost game 6 against Denver, remember that Porter was absolutely torching Powell's defense. He'd score 24 points, then Dame was switched on to him and Porter score 2 points after that. The problem was he didn't get much help, at either end of the floor from his teammates I'd look for Dame to put about the same effort on defense next year he has in the past. But I'd anticipate there will be some better schemes on that end of the floor.
