Dudley: Fresh Start Has Helped Sanders Mature

“I knew a little bit about him (Larry Sanders),” Bucks forward Jared Dudley, an offseason addition, says. “Obviously, I think most people knew about the off-court incidents and stuff like that. Getting in a fight in a bar. But the good I knew about him was when he was like top-3 in blocked shots. We played him, I think it was in Phoenix, he had like seven or eight blocks against us. He was someone that, he was a little bit more ahead defensively than he was offensively, but through my experiences with him before, it seems like he’s matured. He’s actually, definitely one of the leaders — very vocal — and defensively, he’s just as good as advertised.

“I think also, sometimes, in the NBA, a situation can be bad,” Dudley continues. “The Bucks, obviously, you don’t want to say it, but they were really, really bad last year. It snowballed with his injuries and then getting suspensions and stuff like that. So I think, for him, it’s just clean slate, new coaching staff, new owner, and usually when you have that, you can kind of get a second chance with people not judging you, not looking at you. And I think he’s done really, really well with that.”

via James Herbert of CBS Sports