Five Reasons the Utah Jazz Should Pursue Jared Dudley

Veteran Leadership

As Dudley was quick to point out as a top reason he would be a good fit for the Jazz, he would add a solid veteran presence to an otherwise young and inexperienced squad. He clearly proved this in the 2014-15 season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

An otherwise rugged squad was able to finish with a 41-41 record, qualify for the playoffs and put up a solid fight against the third-seeded Chicago Bulls, largely due to the veteran help of Jared Dudley, among others. Without Dudley this past season, the Bucks’ young guns failed to put any sort of consistency together and finished well out of the playoffs with a 33-49 record.

This isn’t to say that Dudley carried the Bucks all by himself, but he along with the likes of Zaza Pachulia and others played a vital role as veterans providing the discipline and toughness that this season’s team clearly lacked. The Bucks had plenty of talent but it was the vets that kept them honed in.

This is something the similarly young Jazz would benefit from greatly on their roster as well. Dudley also plays with toughness and has a reputation of not backing down which would add some much-needed grit and feistiness to a team that, outside of Trevor Booker, has been relatively reserved.

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