Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley has made no secret of the fact that he’s hoping to one day serve as a head coach in the league, per Joey Mistretta of ClutchPoints (Twitter video link).
“I want to head coach, that’s my dream and ambition is to be able to do that,” Dudley said. “But at the same time as you can have that, some us aren’t J.J. Redick and get to go right away. I’ve got to be able to do two, three years, four or five years as an assistant. We all have different years, and my time will come later on. My time will eventually come.”
Redick, a one-time former Maverick, took over as the Lakers’ head coach this offseason without any assistant coach experience at the NBA or college level.
Dudley, a 14-year combo forward as a pro, has served as an assistant coach under Jason Kidd since the 2021/22 season. During that window, the Mavericks have appeared in a pair of Western Conference Finals and one NBA Finals. Currently, Dudley is the head coach of the Mavs’ Summer League squad.
There’s more out of the Southwest:
- High-flying Mavericks wing A.J. Lawson is looking to show he belongs in the league as a regular rotation player, writes Eddie Sefko of Mavericks.com. Though he’s now on a standard contract, Lawson is still trying to prove his mettle on the club’s Summer League team. “The emphasis for me is definitely going to be defending,” Lawson said of his focus this summer. “I want to show I can defend one through four (point guards to power forwards). And also to be able to knock down the open shot. Everybody knows I got speed.”
- Longtime Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich discussed San Antonio’s offseason roster additions Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes in a courtside conversation with ESPN’s Doris Burke and Mark Jones (YouTube video link). “I think [Paul’s] going to teach everybody a whole lot better than I did,” Popovich said. “Having he and Harrison come into the fold at this stage in their career is really wonderful for the youth that we have.” Popovich also raved about No. 4 draft pick Stephon Castle: “I love his seriousness for such a young kid. I love his pace – you see his expression never changes – he doesn’t go too fast, doesn’t go too slow. He reads the situations. The more minutes he gets, the better he is going to be. He seeks contact, he is an excellent defender and he makes wonderful decisions.”
- Second-year Pelicans shooting guard Jordan Hawkins, the No. 14 pick out of UConn in 2023, knows exactly where he wants to improve his game this offseason, writes Christian Clark of NOLA.com. “Definitely the defensive end,” Hawkins said. “I think that’s what held me back a little bit. Not being able to guard. So I think my big focus is going to be on guarding. Trying to guard wings. Trying to get bigger. Shooting. Being a 40% three-point shooter for our team. We have guys who can penetrate, get to the hoop. I just have to be able to knock shots down.”
I like Castle’s game a lot but he doesn’t strike me as a natural pg, at least not yet. Having CPaul as a mentor is obv a best case scenario for him as a rookie but another guy he should look to as someone to emulate would be Russ Westbrook. If I’m not mistaken Russ was the #4 pick & he also spent most of his college career moreso off the ball. Both guys have great size, length & athleticism for a pg, but both come into the league as inconsistent long range shooters. No one should expect Castle to have a HOF career like Russ (tho it’s obv very possible) but Castle/Wembo can be just as electric & productive as Russ/KD if he follows the same blueprint.
Dudley sounds sooo very envious, right?
dudley should of got into coaching 17 years ago.
The Spurs are building the right way…
Going after mentors not stars…
AJ Lawson is more important for them now that they moved Josh Green. He reminded me of Josh Richardson, with less gusrd skills, when he was in summer league with the Heat a few years ago