Photo Credit: USA Today
Jared Dudley was all over ESPN today, and one stop was The Herd with Colin Cowherd where as usual Dudley was an excellent interview. Dudley always gives honest answers and doesn’t B.S. his way through an interview which is something you can appreciate as a viewer.
Dudley spoke on the hot topics in the NBA on Wednesday:
https://youtu.be/hi1tnG4r024
Dudley’s Kobe Bryant comment is no shock, because he’s already telling us what we’ve already known for the past two seasons. Watching Bryant play he knows he’s the “guy” and the minimal talent around him not only pressures him to take on more of the scoring load than normal, but to do things that a 36 year old that’s played in 1,280 games.
Bryant is past his prime and he’s still capable of showing us his greatness, but he needs to pass the torch onto someone else and become the second option on the team so he doesn’t drive himself into the ground. The only problem is he has no one to pass that torch onto and his competitive nature we will never see that (can I emphasize the never part?).
Bryant is rehabbing for the second straight season in hopes of coming back to a revamped Lakers roster or a roster full of young talent.
Dudley also went on to mention how Carmelo Anthony is a player that may be the most overrated in the NBA:
Dudley: Most overrated, I would say Carmelo. Carmelo. I would say Carmelo. The reason why I say Carmelo is because Carmelo is viewed as a top-five player. He’s viewed in the NBA as top-five … Carmelo, he has the talent to be able to facilitate. The triangle should fit him, where he’s gotta make guys better. And defensively he’s gotta take another step, take the next level up. But you know, Carmelo, until, you gotta get out, he’s gotta get out of the first, second round. He’s gotta get his team to the playoffs. LeBron, with that roster, as bad as it is, LeBron would have got ‘em to the playoffs. They would’ve been at least the eighth seed. And he’s not LeBron, he doesn’t have to be. Well, he’s gotta —The Herd
Dudley is spot on once again with his Carmelo Anthony comments. While Carmelo has become one of the prolific scorers in the game it hasn’t translated to much success for the Knicks, but in Anthony’s defense he has not seen the best supporting cast around him either.
Anthony has shown he can hit the game winners and rebound pretty well, but we haven’t seen him get others involved or play good defense consistently.
Dudley did receive some hate after the interview (Lakers and Knicks fans don’t play around) on social media:
You gotta love the Lakers fan! You gotta understand its goin to take a very unique Star to come FA, KD and Russ. No hate just keep in it 100
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) May 27, 2015
Dudley not only gave his honest opinion, but didn’t pull any punches which I like. We see too many times a player dodging questions or giving us an answer that we all know they’re lying through their teeth on.
What did you think of Jared Dudley’s comments today? Honest? Too honest? or just wrong?
Let us know @NBAOnDefPen
