JJ Barea & Jared Dudley on Joining Jokic, Adelman, & NEW Nuggets Staff

JJ Barea & Jared Dudley on Joining Jokic, Adelman, & NEW Nuggets Staff

What’s up everybody? We’re here with JJ Bereet, one of the newest assistant coaches on the Denver Nuggets staff. First of all, JJ, welcome to Denver. Oh, no. I appreciate it, man. Really excited to be here. Really excited for the opportunity. Uh, I know the city, I know the fans, you know, we had a lot of battles before and no, but I’m really excited about this team coming up. What is your impression of the city and and maybe more importantly, what is your impression of the team coming into it? No, well, the team is, you know, the team for the past four or five years been really good. Uh, so we know what we got on this team. We just try to make it a little bit better, bring a lot of new energy, uh, keep them really positive during the year and give the fans, you know, another great year. What are some things that, uh, that you can bring from your playing days that you can bring to this team right now? Man, a lot of experience, a lot of great coaches before that I learned from, uh, a lot of good teammates, uh, and energy. You know, I’m always going to bring my energy. I love the basketball. I love the NBA. uh keep the guys positive, you know, bring bring whatever I can, whatever I I learned during during my career and bring it to to the players. I’m always interested in the perspective of coaches who played against and in some for at least for one year coached against Nicolic. What What is it like being on the other side and what are you looking forward to now working with him? Man, I’m I’m excited. It’s one of the players that you stay up at night to watch. Uh so smart and what I love about him, he loves to compete, man. He loves to compete. That’s what I I like to do. So now being able to to to go in the game with him and and and compete with him in the same team, it’ll be it’ll be awesome. Yeah. You are known for being like a fierce competitor um you know in your playing days. Now that you’re coaching, a lot of the questions comes about Jokic most of the time when we do these interviews. You’re a little bit different. You’re a guard. How do you fire up Jamal? How do you get him involved in that? Oh yeah. My job will be like for this team I think the the bench getting the bench ready to go. get in the bench with a lot of energy coming in the game for whatever 2 minutes, 3 minutes, but going you got to play way harder than the starters and especially in Jamal, you know, Jamal having a great career. Just trying to help him a little bit more in what I can. That’s awesome. He is JJ Beret. We’re excited to have you on board. We’re excited to see the personality of this team this year. Appreciate it, man. Awesome. We’re here with Jared Dudley, newest assistant coach on the Denver Nugget staff. Jared, welcome to Denver first and foremost. Yeah, happy to be here. Excited. Yeah, we’re excited to have you. So tell me, how did it happen? How did it all come together that you joined the staff? Uh I was interviewing for different teams. Uh I got a then I got a text message from one head coach after they asked for permission wanted me to come up there. I was overseas in uh Singapore doing basketball beyond borders and he’s like, you know, take, you know, take a week and let’s do dinner. And I told him, I said, hey, listen, anytime it’s for the number one spot for the Denver Nuggets, I’ll fly out the next day. So I flew out the next day. We had a phenomenal dinner and thought dinner went four four and a half hours and so being with him it’s our first time really talking and uh just breaking down offense defense how we would do things how we wouldn’t do things then coming in the next day and then within what 12 14 hours by the time I uh hit the plane the offer was already done there and it only took me one minute to decide really was one minute. Yeah. What was it about that dinner that uh that made it so much different or made you want to be a part of this organization? Well, first thing first, I mean, when I was with Dallas and with the Lakers, Denver’s always been one of the top teams. You have Yokic the best player in the NBA, it was always between him and what Luca and Shay and every time, but you know, he’s been so consistent at such a top basis. And I think second thing is reason why early on was it was for uh for Dallas was ownership. Having a head coach that’s been there a long time, you look at their football, you look at their their soccer, you look at that one. Um, and then always for a chance to compete for a championship. Uh, it’s my first time. I was an assistant as a defensive hand. had a lot of influence on a lot of stuff you got to do, the little tricks and trades. You already have a championship core. My job here is to help bring the adjustments, bring a a different identity, intensity from a player perspective and help this team uh get over the hump. And what is some of that identity that you want to bring to the team? What do you see from them that they do really well and what is something you say here’s where we got to go to the next level? Yeah, I think obviously the offense is, you know, top five. Uh when it comes Joic is really simple, easy. You’re cutting Jamal Murray when it comes down to crunch time hoops. I think defensively he’s having the identity. I think they were 22nd in defense. Terrible transition defense team, but they’re good at crashing, getting rebounds. So, putting in different uh uh uh structure of hey, when to crash, when not to crash, who do you want to get back defensively have a toughness as we saw, we see Watson has all defensive team uh calling them out. Uh I’ll probably meet with Murray one time is you look at all the top guards. Hey, this is where you rate defensively. You might not ever be a AllNBA defender. Can we get you 5 10% better? Can you be better than Brunson? Can you be like Dan Fleet? So, that’s my job to push guys in a in a former player way to get to them. Uh, but yet understand it’s a team defense. They want a championship. And I think they were 15th in defense cuz their offense is so elite. Let me ask this one question though because everybody I talked to tells me he could call guys out. Players really connect with them even when he could be brutally honest. Is that a boring skill? Is that something you cultivate? Like how where did that come from? Uh, I think some stuff we all have natural ability. I think for me it’s when when you use the word calling out I I get to know you. I know you know it’s like if you have a lot of kids of which kids you know is more sensitive than others. So it’s for someone you don’t call anyone out early on. You learn them. You get in the gym with them. You talk it. And then eventually I’m always about winning and being unselfish. That’s how I was as a player. And so these guys it’s you know it might be through jokes. It might be a tough film session. It might be hey listen I’mma pull you aside and say hey I’m going to get on you in front of the team but it’s going to help in the grand scheme of things. So, it’s a feel. You got to have a feel in the game time feeling that one. But for me, I’ve I’ve been pretty good at it with the new uh acquisitions and uh guys that they bring around. Um how do you add that philosophy philosophy, but keep that culture? Yeah, I I think first thing you have your core, but you got like like Cam and Cam Johnson can play anywhere. He’s a system player, high level, high IQ, and high character, which is one I have Tim. Tim’s going to bring toughness. He’s going to bring a little bit of attitude. Sometimes we call it a hot head. He’ll get in his own head sometimes. It’s me and JJ’s job to cool him down, stay consistent. And then you got guys like Bruce Brown. Bruce Brown is that’s he was a huge part why you guys won that championship. Him coming back, trying to come back to, you know, get back his career going. And so for me, it’s it’s uh starts with the head coach. I’m I’m It’s my job to assist him. Whatever he’s trying to do, I have to echo it. but also for me to bring a little bit of my identity and structure defensively and different ways that I can push guys to take it to hopefully to the next level. Jamal Murray, let’s get him a first time off guard. He hasn’t had it. How’s that start winning games? You got to be a top two seed like you see Garland and those guys. And so it’s kind of, you know, trying to push him not only individually, but as a team. Dev, I see it now, man. I’m fired up. I’m ready for this. Jared, we’re ready. We’re excited to have you on board, man. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Great to meet each other

DNVR Nuggets Exclusive interview with JJ Barea & Jared Dudley about joining David Adelman & NEW Denver Nuggets Coaching staff with Nikola Jokic & More. JJ Barea and Jared Dudley are joining the Denver Nuggets coaching staff, and they’re bringing serious experience, energy, and championship-level insight. In this exclusive interview, Barea shares his excitement about coaching Nikola Jokic and energizing the bench, while Dudley breaks down his plan to elevate Jamal Murray and tighten up the Nuggets’ defense. Hear behind-the-scenes stories from their hiring process and what they’ll bring to the reigning champs. Nuggets fans won’t want to miss how this revamped staff plans to push Denver back to the top.

Timestamps:
0:00 – JJ Barea
2:11 – Jared Dudley

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