Summer league
Dudley: There's more to Bobcats' offense
Forward says coach Larry Brown has installed more schemes in 4 days than the team had all last season.
By Rick Bonnell

LAS VEGAS --Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown says second-year forward Jared Dudley is over-thinking.

Probably so, Dudley said, but that's no big surprise considering all the thinking required this week. According to Dudley, Brown has installed more offense, with more options off each play, in four days of summer camp than the Bobcats used all of last season.

“ Way more complexity. You're going to have to have a high basketball IQ to play for him.'' Dudley said following practice Friday, the last day of preparation for summer-league games.

“I'm not saying Sam Vincent (Brown's predecessor) was definitely a bad coach, but this coach has so much more experience. He's been with so many teams and won championships. He had Dean Smith teach him. He's going to be so thorough. Already (before) training camp, we have everything we had last year, if not more.''

Brown knew he was flooding players with plays, sets and jargon this week, but he felt he could refine what they're learning later. He told them they'd make mistakes, and that's OK.

He wasn't counting on Dudley being quite so fastidious, and that's been occasionally counter-productive.

“I think Jared is trying to be perfect, and that never works in our sport,'' Brown said Thursday night. “You've gotta kind of loosen up and relax and play.''

Brown is new to these players so he doesn't know Dudley's personality. By nature, Dudley is savvy and analytical, and somewhat of a pleaser. Injured much of his rookie preseason, Dudley didn't play until the last exhibition, when he grabbed a bunch of rebounds and steals.

Asked what got into him that night, Dudley said the Bobcats had plenty of scorers but few people to get back the ball. So he concentrated on that, figuring that would guarantee he'd play as a rookie.

Now, surrounded by rookies and free agents, he's trying to serve as a leader.

“It's a whole new offense with whole new sets and whole new features. I'm trying to master it best I can in practice,'' Dudley explained. “If I go too hard, that's fine – make my mistakes now and then help other people out'' in fall training camp.

Dudley said not to worry about him being over-thinking once the games start. The Bobcats play the Los Angeles Clippers' summer-league team today at 6 p.m., at Cox Pavilion on UNLV's campus.

“Right now I'm trying to listen to every detail he says,'' Dudley said. “When game-time comes, I'll take all that knowledge and let it flow.''

Our Player IQ must not have been all that good when LB was here.