Washington Wizards: Jared Dudley A Great Acquisition

Offseason frenzies can be good or bad, depending on who you claim to be a fan of. This year, if you claim the Washington Wizards, things haven’t gone perfectly. They lost one of their greatest one-year players, Paul Pierce, as he opted out of his player option and decided to head back towards his hometown and agree on a contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Although this really hurt, Wizards fans can find peace in the fact that the Wizards front office has not given up yet. Far from it. They’ve been brought up as suitors and interesting landing spots for a lot of the currently still available free agents. Many of these free agents are veterans, and David West was brought up, who could be a great replacement for Paul Pierce.

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Even more than just free agency, they’re shaking things up with non-traditional roster acquisitions. Although this deal still can’t be official until July 9 when the league moratorium on player transactions ends, the Wizards will acquire Jared Dudley of the Milwaukee Bucks to add to their roster for next season.

The Wizards don’t have to give anything up right now to get Dudley, they actually already did their part when they gave up Andre Miller for Ramon Sessions in a trade with the Sacramento Kings earlier this year. They’re using a trade exception, something that isn’t utilized all that often in the NBA.

For those of you who don’t know what that is, here’s the description from Wikipedia:

"If a team trades away a player with a higher salary than the player they acquire in return (the deal hereafter referred to as “Trade #1”), they receive a Traded Player Exception, also known as a “Trade Exception”. Teams with a trade exception have up to a year in which they can acquire more salary in other trades (Trade #2, #3, etc.) than they send away, as long as the gulf in salaries for Trade #2, #3, etc. are less than or equal to the difference in salary for Trade #1."

These exceptions are most often used when teams want to free up salary space. The Bucks wanted to do this, making this move a good one for them. Dudley fully expected to be a Buck next season, as he opted into his player option. However, this deal moved him around. He still adapted, and appears to be quite excited to be playing for the Wizards.

There’s the first bonus. D.C. has a player coming to them that’s excited to be on their squad.

Of course, with a lot of these offseason moves, the goal of the Wizards is to make sure that they’re prepared for the loss of Pierce. A lot of what he brought to the table appears irreplaceable, but in reality, several players around the league are available who offer many of the same qualities as Pierce. Dudley is one of these players.

One of the most impressive things about Pierce, especially as the postseason played out, was his range, and his confidence in his three-point shot. Sixty-three out of his 99 attempted shots in the playoffs were three-pointers. He did this well, shooting 52 percent from the three point line.

Dudley also does three-point shooting well. In the past, he’s had several years where he shot close to 50 percent from beyond the three-point line during the regular season. Last year, he was at 38 percent.

It doesn’t take a professional to see that based on his shot chart, his shooting from deep is pretty good. From that left corner, he shot 50 percent.

What’s been brought up almost as much as his shooting for what the Wizards are missing from Pierce, is his veteran presence. The Wizards are doing a great job of making sure the veteran presence lost from Pierce is not missing next season. It appears that veteran Drew Gooden will be coming back.

On top of this, Dudley helps here as well, as he’s been in the league for eight years. He did get a chance to go fairly deep in the playoffs with the Clippers two years ago, some experience he can bring with him as the Wizards look to contend in the playoffs this year.

They got Dudley for what is essentially pretty cheap. What the math comes out to is that he costed them a little over $4 million dollars. I believe he brings a lot to the table, and gets the ball rolling in the right direction as far as replacing Pierce is concerned.

Next: Washington Wizards Need To Lock Up David West

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