Jared Dudley spent last year with the injury derailed Washington Wizards, and despite hoping for the best, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be returning to them this off-season. As an unrestricted free agent, Dudley is exploring all his other options, including a young and exciting Boston Celtics squad.
Dudley sat down with Larry H. Russell of CLNS Radio’s Celtics Beat program and discusses the potential of joining Coach Brad Stevens squad:
“To be honest with you when you listen to people, a lot of these sports writers on your show are pretty accurate. I think I would be a pretty good fit for Boston in the sense that they need shooting. You can never have too much veteran leadership. They’re a team that’s obviously led by Brad Stevens who is a great coach and they’ve done well, but the key to a young team is developing that young talent. They have the number three pick here in the draft and you can never have (enough) people who know how to play the right way, know their role.”
Earlier on before Dudley had joined Russell for the interview, Russell had put out a question on his blog, regarding who the Celtics should target, leading to an amusing Dudley response on Twitter:
#celticsnation Which backup wing would you like #celtics to pursue? Matt Barnes? Jared Dudley? #greenrunsdeep https://t.co/BsabaXDITs
— CLNS Celtics Pregame (@CelticsPregame) June 6, 2016
I love my Boston people but that 1 yr 5 mil not goin to get it done lol https://t.co/pSQ0sju741
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) June 6, 2016
Dudley’s concerns are obviously the huge increase in salary caps that every team is going to have starting this offseason. With plans for every team to pay more than expected for players, Dudley could be demanding anywhere from $7-9 million a year. The savvy veteran who averaged just 8 points, 1.5 3-pointers a game, shooting 42% from beyond the arc, has a lot of talent to bring to this Celtics team that is dire need of a shooter. Dudley also fits the build of being a stretch four in the new ‘wave’ of small ball in the NBA, which could help the Celtics with spacing the floor and potentially drive & kick situations with All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas. That being said, The Celtics are probably not focused on Dudley at the moment as their number one priority is this year’s NBA Draft. With 9 picks and a ton of room to sign players, it’s almost guaranteed to be an eventful summer for the Celtics.
