Phoenix Suns: The Importance Of Jared Dudley’s Leadership

The addition of Jared Dudley addresses a need at power forward, but his value to the young Phoenix Suns extends far beyond that.

With a roster full of young players, two point guards whose 2015-16 seasons were ended by injury and a couple of aging veterans, the Phoenix Suns‘ addition of a fan favorite like Jared Dudley would be easy to misconstrue as a PR stunt to sell a few extra tickets.

Coming off a 23-win season that was plagued with injuries, on-court chemistry and a few locker room issues headlined by Markieff Morris‘ sideshow, Phoenix badly needed something positive to bring back fan support and inspire confidence that the franchise is heading in the right direction.

On paper, signing a 30-year-old stretch-4 to a three-year, $30 million contract is an odd way to go about accomplishing those goals, but make no mistake about it: Jared Dudley and the Suns are as ideally suited for each other now as they’ve ever been.

"“Me and my family have been secretly wanting to come back here for years,” Dudley said at his introductory press conference Friday. “I don’t think there’s a more perfect person, right now, for this job at this time, with this young team, than me.”"

From Dudley’s perspective, his return to Phoenix was almost inevitable.  Now that he’s returned to the place where he spent the best four and a half years of his career though, it’ll be a very different situation for the nine-year veteran.

More from Phoenix Suns

• 3 NBA superstars with legacies on the line heading into 2023–24
• Ranking the 4 riskiest boom-or-bust NBA teams in 2023–24
• 5 NBA players facing do-or-die 2023–2024 seasons
• Report: Phoenix is considering signing two former lottery picks
• Phoenix’s questionable Deandre Ayton strategy is worth the risk

For starters, this won’t be a team expected to make the playoffs, let alone the Western Conference Finals, as the Suns did in Dudley’s 2010 run with the team.

For another thing, Dudley will be penciled in as the team’s starting power forward for the season opener, unlike his last stint with the team when he often played the 2 alongside Grant Hill at the 3.

Luckily for Phoenix, the league is heading further and further down the small-ball path, giving Dudley plenty of experience at the power forward spot over the last two seasons with Milwaukee and Washington.

"“The 4 is very similar, the NBA is now where people are going small-ball,” he said. “The hardest thing, to be honest with you, is defensively. Offensively, you play basketball. You can shoot the ball, dribbling, making reads for me comes naturally.”"

On the defensive end, the 6’7″Dudley will be undersized in most matchups. He’s not a rim protector with length and elite defensive instincts like another 6’7″ stretch-big in Draymond Green, but he has the lateral quickness to make things interesting at least.

Rebounding will be the bigger issue for the Suns, which is where Tyson Chandler and Alex Len will come in. Off the bench, those 18-year-old rookies — one of whom posted the worst rebounding percentage among all big men in this year’s draft class — will have to hold their own.

Live Feed

Valley of the Suns

Fortunately, Dudley is already acutely aware of where his new mentees will need work. He admitted to watching Marquese Chriss‘ college highlights and revealed that on draft night, before he even agreed to rejoin the Suns, he texted owner Robert Sarver to let him know how great a draft they had. He even cracked a joke about Marquese “hacking and fouling out 12 out of 30 games.”

“A lot of it for Bender is going to be the physical part,” he said. “Chriss, the mental part.”

Dudley called himself a fan of the game like everyone else, noting that a lot of Bender’s adjustment will be to the physicality of the game, while Chriss’ growth will need to come with the mental aspect of the game.

But even as Bender struggles to adjust to the physicality of the game and Chriss learns to guard the kinds of athletic stretch-4s he rarely saw in college, Dudley’s presence aims to make sure that learning curve isn’t so steep that it becomes discouraging.

According to him, it’s not just about basketball, it’s about life, and that mindset helped convince Phoenix that he was the right man for the job.

"“What I told [the Suns] was there’s no one more perfect for this job,” he said. “You could find a better basketball player at the power forward position, you could even have an All-Star, but you’re still gonna need guys to groom these young guys.“We all were on the same page where my contract is not just for what I do on the floor; it has to do with the locker room, weight room, training room, and helping show these guys how to be a pro.”"

So what makes Dudley so qualified to take on the role of mentor in addition to his job as the team’s starting power forward?

Aside from his nine years in the league, Dudley was once in the shoes of Chriss, Bender and Devin Booker, being a young Suns player looking to carve out his own place in a winning franchise.

Dudley was able to take what he learned from Suns legends like Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Amar’e Stoudemire and even Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Richardson to give back to the younger generation. In Milwaukee, Dudley transitioned into the role of mentor for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker, who are now budding All-Stars.

"“The back of the bus trips were one of the best times I ever had on this team,” Dudley said. “People don’t realize that, it’s the conversations I used to have with Shaq, Amar’e, Steve, and you wanted to know why they were so successful. ‘How did you become an All-Star?’“That’s what I had in Milwaukee with Giannis and Jabari and that’s what I’ll have with Chriss, Bender and Booker. It’s getting to know them as a person, as a man.”"

The year before Dudley joined the Bucks, a young Milwaukee team won 15 games. The next year, they saw a 26-game turnaround and made the playoffs. Last season, with veterans like Dudley and Zaza Pachulia departing in free agency, the Bucks slumped to 33 wins.

Heading into free agency, general manager Ryan McDonough listed off three components the Suns were looking for: Someone with veteran experience, someone who could stretch the floor at the 4-spot and someone who could be a leader in a young locker room.

“We laid out those kind of parameters that whittled the list down pretty quickly and one guy who quickly rose to the top of that list was Jared Dudley,” he said.

It wasn’t guaranteed that Phoenix would reel in the former fan favorite, however. According to Dudley, the Brooklyn Nets were aggressive in their pursuit of the veteran stretch-4, with GM Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson showing up to his house with a highly lucrative offer.

A Utah Jazz contingent followed the Nets party, but in the end, a call from the Suns wound up being the first domino in bringing Dudley home, especially after Mirza Teletovic agreed to a three-year, $30 million deal with the Bucks.

Having a high character guy in the locker room should serve Phoenix’s youth movement well. After the press conference, Dudley said he was flying to Las Vegas to check out his younger teammates playing in Summer League, and his locker is right next to Chriss’ in the Suns locker room.

As someone who’s seen what this franchise looks like at its best, his influence could be intrinsic to the Suns taking the proper steps back to relevance in the West. Dudley said his first order of business is establishing that same kind of closeness with his new teammates that he enjoyed in his first Phoenix stint, when bowling outings and dinners included the whole team.

"“I always noticed here, the more you like someone, the easier and harder you can play with someone,” he said. “When teams have different cliques it’s kind of hard to come together. When I was here, my most successful year and our team’s most successful year, all 12 hung out."

Dudley wasn’t just brought in to babysit, however. Coming off a season in which he played 81 games for the Wizards and shot 42 percent from three-point range, Dudley will serve a tangible purpose on the court as well.

His presence also saves Bender and Chriss from a trial by fire from day one, easing the pressure that might have been laid on two unprepared 18-year-olds who figure to be projects more than immediate contributors.

"“We didn’t want to be too young,” McDonough said. “I think people look at our team and the 23-and-under crowd and we have five or six guys in that group now, but we wanted some veteran leadership, we wanted some experience. We expect to be a lot more competitive next year than people outside of our organization feel.”"

According to Dudley, now is the perfect time to be a Suns fan. Though neither he nor McDonough could talk about the impending signing of Leandro Barbosa until it’s official, the former fan favorite is confident in the direction the franchise is heading in.

More hoops habit: The Many Ripple Effects Of Kevin Durant's Warriors Decision

"“People don’t understand, there was a reason why this franchise at one point, even when I wasn’t even here, was one of the best franchises, with Nash and all of them,” Dudley said. “It has all the ingredients, it’s just you’ve got to draft correct and they’ve got three good picks here.“Now it’s my job and the coaching staff’s to develop them and take this franchise back to what it once was.”"