MVN - Most Valuable Network

2007-08 Player Review: Jared Dudley

Image details: Toronto Raptors v Charlotte Bobcats served by picapp.com

g	mpg	ppg	fg%	ftp%	3p%	rpg	apg	spg	bpg	PER
73	19.9	5.8	.468	.737	.220	3.9	1.1	.75	.14	13.63

Jared Dudley was selected in the first round of last year’s draft after being….yes, once more, we have to say it…the ACC Player of the year at Boston College. But no one expected Dudley to be a star. He isn’t much of a leaper, he’s not enormously quick. He is of about average size and speed, and rarely does anything that makes you get up out of your seat and whoop and holler.

And this is going to be Larry Brown’s favorite player. Write it down now.

Dudley works his tail off. He digs in for steals, gets rebounds by positioning more than strength and leaping ability, makes good rotation passes, rarely forces shots, and just generally is effective. My guess is that Brown keys on Dudley as a guy who playes “the right way,” and finds minutes for him, just like the similarly limited George Lynch in Philadelphia. Before the All-Star break, Dudley was only getting 13 minutes a game, and it seemed almost impossible for the coaching staff to find a place for him to fit in. But after the break, and with Gerald Wallace’s bell being rung, Dudley got 26 minutes a game. And generally, when he is on the floor, good things happen. Taking a look at his numbers at 82games.com, you’ll see that Dudley clearly affected the Bobcats games for the positive.

He has shortcomings; that lack of footspeed makes him more of a positional defender than one on one stopper, and leaves him vulnerable to dribble drives by quicker small forwards. He’s not big enough to really face up to the ponding at the  4 position. But some of the things we saw last season will change; he will lose some of the baby fat and get stronger. He has the range to be an effective three point shooter in small doses.

If managed correctly, Jared Dudley will be the Bobcats’ George Lynch. It’s Shane Battier.  And I think Dudley would be happy with that. So would Larry Brown.

Your thoughts? Should we expect more? Can he develop in time to be that kind of “glue guy?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 7:38 am and is filed under Jared Dudley, Gerald Wallace, Charlotte Bobcats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.