Will Jared Dudley be an offseason target for the Pistons?

It’s no secret the Pistons will be looking to increase their depth at the power forward spot this offseason.

Power forward was a serious area of weakness for the majority of last season for the Pistons until the late trade for Tobias Harris, which immensely improved that position.

However, the bench is still an area for concern with Anthony Tolliver dropping off and it looking more and more likely he wont be returning to the team next season.

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Washington Wizards’ power forward Jared Dudley will be a free agent this coming season and he could be the solution to the Pistons current problems.

Dudley has been thrown around the league in recent seasons. After being drafted by Charlotte in 2007 with the 22nd pick he spent a season and a bit with the Bobcats, before being traded to the Phoenix Suns. He then spent the next five years in Phoenix where he had by far his most productive seasons.

While with the Suns he averaged 9.8 points per game, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists while shooting 41 percent from the three point line.

Since his time in Phoenix he has bounced around to the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and eventually Washington.

As a result he’s mostly seen his stats drop during these seasons. The one exception however is his three point shooting, which has remained steady. In fact, the most enticing aspect of Dudley’s play is just how consistent of a shooter he’s been throughout his entire ten season career.

Excluding his rookier year, Dudley has never shot worse than 36 per cent from behind the arc. He’s also had three seasons where he shot over 40 percent, and in 2009-10 he shot a staggering 46 percent from deep on 3.2 attempts per game.

This past season was almost as equally as impressive for Dudley, shooting 42 percent while taking just under three attempts per game.

For a guy who has been mostly coming off the bench since leaving Phoenix he is able to find his spots effectively in the time he’s on the court, and most importantly he’s able to make a lot of his shots.

The Pistons ranked dead last for points off the bench this season with just 25.7 points per game, but if they were able to land Jared Dudley they would immediately rise up the rankings.

Compare Dudley with Tolliver who spent almost the entire year as the backup power forward and it becomes obvious this would be a huge upgrade. Tolliver averaged 5.3 points last season compared to Dudley’s 7.5 when coming off the bench, while Tolliver shot 36 percent from three on 3.8 attempts per game.

Dudley shot a whole 6 per cent better than Tolliver this past season and it seems the Pistons were looking for Tolliver much more than the Wizards were looking for Dudley. Put Dudley in Tolliver’s position this season and it’s likely Dudley is averaging even more points per game than he did.

Dudley’s extra 2.2 points off the bench would have boosted the Pistons’ bench scoring to 28th, which is still awful, but far better than being dead last in the entire league.

It also seems likely the Pistons would be able to get Dudley for relatively cheap.

Obviously this is subject to how much demand there is for him in the offseason, and recently Dudley stated the Celtics are a team he’s interested in joining which puts the Pistons at a distinct disadvantage already.

Stan Van Gundy has proved he can be a magician when it comes to front office moves however, so if he’s interested in luring Dudley to Detroit expect him to go all out.

Jared Dudley would be a huge addition to the bench and could be a decisive piece in helping the Pistons continue to rise back to the top of the Eastern Conference.

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