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Something Still Doesn’t Add Up With Jared Dudley’s Departure

By Adam McGee

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The news of Jared Dudley‘s back injury came as a significant surprise to most yesterday. Washington Wizards fans likely felt that it was a blow to the gut to lose a player they had only recently acquired to injury, but for Milwaukee Bucks fans it answered some old questions, and maybe provided some new ones too.

Many (including myself) had been critical of the Bucks decision to trade away a valuable veteran swingman like Dudley, who they had signed an extension with only a week earlier, for no more than a highly protected second rounder.

From there, the Bucks went on the hunt for a veteran shooter in a move that seemed thoroughly dumbfounding considering the player they had just traded away. As is probably often the case in the NBA though, in spite of all of the information at our disposal, there’s likely still a lot that we don’t know.

As I stressed at the time, the Bucks’ front office has done so much good work, that they had to be given the benefit of the doubt also.

When Dudley was introduced to the media as a Wizard, he seemed completely unsurprised by the fact that he was traded to Washington though:

"I liked my situation in Milwaukee, but if they told me I was going to opt-in and go to Washington, I would have opted in the first day because I can’t see a situation’s that’s better for me right now.I knew this could be a possibility once Paul Pierce left. I think I fit in well."

This was an early indicator that there may have been some other factors at play with the deal, as if there was mutual interest between Dudley and Washington, why would he have been happy to have opted in to the final year of his contract only to be traded, rather than testing his value on the open market.

Now that we know of Dudley’s injury it makes perfect sense though. Dudley gets the security of an extra year’s guaranteed money, while the Wizards get the chance to see how the veteran recovers on an expiring deal instead of being tied in longer term.

Still, some of the comments made by both the Wizards and Dudley’s representatives in their statement announcing his need for surgery struck me as peculiar.

ESPN quoted Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld as saying:

"During our discussions with Jared and his agent, Mark Bartelstein, we were made aware that he played with pain for a significant part of last season due to this injury. After jointly consulting with our team doctors and several specialists, we collectively determined that this proactive approach was the best course of action to have him ready for the upcoming season and to prevent the risk of further injury."

Dudley showed himself to be a consummate professional and a loyal servant in his time in Milwaukee, so in many ways that statement should be unsurprising.

Saying that, considering the torrid time that he had with the Los Angeles Clippers, and how Dudley has spoken about that in the past, it seems unusual that he would have put himself in that sort of situation again.

You could say that Dudley only ended up in Milwaukee due to injury in the first place. The Clippers wanted to dump the injured Dudley’s salary and with a first round pick on the negotiating table as a sweetener, the Bucks were a more than willing partner.

On an appearance on Zach Lowe’s Lowe Post podcast last season, Dudley explained how his struggles with tendonitis in his knee (later proven to be a fracture) were so severe that he asked Doc Rivers if he could sit out some time, but ultimately due to injuries to Matt Barnes and J.J. Redick (who had a herniated disc at the time, ironically enough), he had to play on.

Then Dudley went on to say:

"The trade was the best thing for my career, as it got me with the training staff who got me healthy.I got traded, and the Bucks training staff said “Hey, we think we have something for you.”"

Dudley continued by talking about a rehab program the Bucks put together for him through an expert in biomechanical aspects of human movement from USC in Los Angeles called Chris Powers, which reaped almost instant results:

"So I went to Vegas to train, Bucks came out there for a week, I did the program for the week, and then I had no knee pain.I couldn’t get healthy for 6-7 months in LA, I get traded to Milwaukee and within a week I’m healthy. So I was indebted to them, they got me healthy."

That story stands as a testament to the Bucks training staff, but also makes it tough to understand how Dudley and that staff were happy for him to play injured for a “significant part of last season”.

It still feels like there’s details we’ll never know about Dudley’s departure from Milwaukee, but now all that’s left for Bucks fans to do is to wish him a full and speedy recovery, and the best of luck in the future.

Get well soon, Duds.

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