Jared Dudley had a lengthy NBA career. As an assistant coach with the Nuggets, Dudley now finds himself in charge of Denver’s defensive schemes. His main mission is a simple one.
“Coming up with a defense that protects (Nikola Jokic),” he told Bennett Durando of the Denver Post.
Dudley is doing so by having Denver’s guards and wings take on more responsibilities at that end, so that Jokic can conserve his energy for the offensive side.
“I can’t teach (him) anything offensively. You’re already this. You’ve got that,” Dudley said. “But defensively, I can teach you. I’ve played with different centers. I’ve played with Boban (Marjanovic), who’s bigger than you and slower than you. … I only want him to think about going back to the rim, Point A to Point B. I don’t want him having him to go guard these guards on the wings, in rotations.”
We have more on the Northwest Division:
- How are the Jazz’s young players faring thus far? Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune takes a closer look, breaking down the team’s last three draft classes and evaluating each of those players’ performances.
- Austin Ainge is the Jazz’s president of basketball operations and Larsen spoke with the Celtics’ top executive, Brad Stevens, about the son of longtime Celtics and Utah executive Danny Ainge. Stevens is confident that Austin Ainge will step out of his father’s shadow and build a winner in Utah. “He’s always been a guy that I think has a good sense for putting a team together and what wins, both in the regular season and then certainly in the playoffs,” Stevens said.
- The undefeated Thunder will be playing without several rotation players in Portland tonight. Alex Caruso (rest), Luguentz Dort (right upper trapezius strain) and Chet Holmgren (lower back sprain) are all listed as out, Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman tweets.
There is nothing anybody can teach Jokić. However, his perimeter defense isn’t optimal. Hence the team should be working on how to close out on players so that Jokić can stay in the paint.
The NBA is definitely getting on my nerves. Players just sitting night in and night out for no reason. Lakers, sat AR and Luka in Portland. You can definitely play 20 minutes or 25 minutes if you want to. However, players sit because they don’t want to mess their stats up. You shouldn’t be able to sit out if you’re in a way team The fans have bought tickets and expecting to see a good game and then within an hour players just aren’t playing that’s crazy
Some truth, but with OKC Dort did appear to mess the shoulder up got it worked on and went to the back didn’t return. Chet came back from the back bothering him, took a tough fall last night.
I do get it though I would hate being a parent paying for a kid to see a specific player and they just don’t play. I was lucky enough as a kid to when we went to games I saw most of the guys I wanted to see.