Jared Dudley Reveals Details Of Milwaukee Bucks Exit

It was only yesterday when I said that it still felt like there was a lot we didn’t know about the way things ended between the Milwaukee Bucks and Jared Dudley. Little did I know that only 24 hours later, we’d know a whole lot more though.

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After making an incredibly interesting and entertaining appearance on Grantland’s Lowe Post podcast hosted by Zach Lowe earlier in the season, Dudley made a return appearance today to talk about the craziness of free agency, and his own situation even more specifically.

For Bucks fans who had question marks over a variety of issues following the veteran’s departure, Dudley spoke as openly and candidly as ever on this occasion, and as a result, we now have a lot more answers.

Dudley’s representatives had hinted that he had been injured for a significant part of last season, and when Lowe questioned him, with Dudley only a day over surgery to repair a herniated disc, the 30-year-old gave a little more background to his injury problems as a Buck.

"I injured it probably around late January and played through it, took a couple of cortisone shots in my back throughout the season to manage it. We were fighting for the playoffs and that was huge for me to try and get that team to the playoffs. We worked so hard."

Following Dudley’s injury history, in many ways this sounds a little surprising coming from his mouth, yet at the same time based on his personality you’d expect nothing less from him than that sort of determination to help his team succeed.

One of the most surprising details of the former Boston College man’s departure from Milwaukee was the fact that he had chosen not to exercise his early termination option. Dudley had the chance to test the open market, and choose where he wanted to play, but he decided against it and still ended up getting traded.

Dudley shed some light at the thought processes that led him into that situation:

"I’m not going to lie to you, I wanted to opt out. But you never want to opt-out without having a deal in place or at least having a backup plan. So me and my agent went around a number of different places, and had people interested."

Among the places listed by Dudley as interested parties were his former team the Phoenix Suns, and his eventual destination the Washington Wizards, although he did mention there were up to seven options open to him.

As Dudley shopped around for offers, feeling out his potential value if he was to become a free agent, where did Milwaukee stand though?

"To be honest with you, it came as a surprise, because Milwaukee didn’t offer, and the reason why they didn’t offer was because they liked where they stood.The indication was we want you back, but under that salary, under that deal because they wanted to go into next year having cap space."

Of course, Dudley could then have decided to hit the open market, but stating the fact that he knew he was never going to get any guarantees as a guy who was “a fourth, fifth option, glue guy”, he opted for the security instead.

From there, it then became a case of assessing his role with the Bucks:

"I have a great relationship with Milwaukee, great season, loved J-Kidd, John Hammond, but they’re up and coming. With Jabari coming back, Giannis might play some stretch four, Greg Monroe can play five and four. At that time when they knew they didn’t see me there in the long run, but saw me helping young guys out, which is understandable, it was time to basically move on.I got to tip my hat to the Bucks, because they had the final say."

Dudley spoke about how he and his agent Marc Bartelstein played the market in effect, looking for teams who may have been interested in his services, and once the Wizards had been established as an option, he then spoke to Milwaukee about working on a trade.

"For me when I was there, I was 100 percent professional. I did stuff above my contract. On the plane with the young guys talking to them. I was by far the most vocal leader they had there in I don’t know how long.I think Milwaukee respected that, they said hey he was great for us, he did everything and he wanted to help. And you saw the same thing with Zaza Pachulia, seeing that very similar trade, and that’s what happens. How you do business, that’s what makes people want to deal with you, that’s what makes players like Greg Monroe want to go there over other places. You see how they treat people."

The Bucks have been criticized in many quarters (here included), for disposing of their veterans so willingly for no return, but this perspective from Dudley is more than interesting.

Another interesting detail came out as Zach Lowe pushed Dudley to answer who you talk to in Milwaukee when looking for a trade, is it Jason Kidd or John Hammond? With the suggestions of a power struggle, Dudley’s answer offers an insight into how the Bucks hierarchy currently works.

"You’re talking to both. I mean Kidd and Hammond run the show, both those guys run the show. They both have equal say, I mean that’s why they’ve been so successful in a short time."

As no surprise to anyone, Dudley remains as interesting to listen to as ever. I’d highly recommend listening to the rest of the podcast (linked above) to hear more of his thoughts on the Bucks, as well as some amusing views on the league as a whole. As always Lowe is as interesting as anyone around the NBA too.

Dudley speaks highly of Milwaukee, and says that he would happily play there any time now, so who knows what could happen down the road too.

For now though (until his next podcast appearance) it finally seems like the Bucks can say farewell to Dudley.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks Officially Sign Chris Copeland

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