Los Angeles Lakers: 4 reasons Jared Dudley will be an underrated role player
By Robert Marvi
4. Defense
At first thought, you may be saying to yourself, what? Defense? Dudley isn’t a good defender!
Yes, he’s never made an All-Defensive team, nor been among the league leaders in steals, blocks or any advanced defensive metrics. But one thing’s for sure: he’ll bring the effort on a consistent basis and, pardon the cliche, leave it all on the floor.
Dudley is the type of player who loves to get under the skin of the man he’s guarding. He seems to have the natural countenance of such a man, namely a tough guy who doesn’t take any you-know-what from anyone.
He also stands 6-foot-7 and weighs almost 240 pounds, which will help him physically match up with elite forwards such as Leonard, Paul George, Ben Simmons and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He may not be able to stop any of them (who can, though?), but he could at least match their physicality and make them work hard for their points.
As far as Dudley not being known for the quality of his defense, there’s an old saying that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, and Dudley is a man who not only works hard but will make the guy he’s guarding work at least as hard.