2. Feistiness
I talked about this in a previous slide, and I’ll say it again: Dudley seems to love to get under the skin of his opponents, and sometimes that can cause an opponent to not play well as much as being a fundamentally good defender can.
This is a quality that many say is lacking in today’s NBA, yet seems to be plentiful on the Los Angeles Clippers in players such as Patrick Beverley and Montrezl Harrell. Dudley can help counteract that when the Lakers compete against their cross-town rivals.
Every championship team needs an enforcer, someone who’s willing and able to wear the proverbial black hat and mix it up with the other team and commit hard fouls when needed.
The Golden State Warriors have Draymond Green, who has, at times, done that in a flamboyant manner. Past Lakers championship teams had enforcers such as Ron Artest, Rick Fox and Kurt Rambis.
In addition to his ability to hit 3s consistently, Dudley can give this Lakers team just that. In some ways, he could even be a rough facsimile of Artest or Fox for that very reason.
To prove this, watch this epic sequence from Brooklyn’s first-round playoff series a few months ago against the Philadelphia 76ers and how Dudley was able to thoroughly annoy Simmons.