Brooklyn Nets: 3 things to watch in lone trip to Phoenix

2. Homecoming of sorts for Dudley

Jared Dudley will be coming home for Tuesday’s matchup, literally. Dudley spent the last two seasons with the Phoenix Suns before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in July and still maintains a home, and plans to retire, in the area.

Dudley had played nearly five seasons with the Suns earlier in his career, as well.

There were likely not a lot of people who would have put money on Dudley starting Brooklyn’s first 10 games of this season, particularly not since Dudley had only seven starts in the last two seasons and hasn’t started more than half a team’s games since 2013-14 when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers.

But injuries in the preseason to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and DeMarre Carroll created a void and Dudley has filled it, ably at times. He’s averaging 5.6 points, 3,1 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 24.8 minutes per game while shooting .388/.314/7-for-8.

What Dudley adds to the Nets is spacing at the offensive end, but he has been ice cold from deep over the last five games, going 2-for-15 from outside the arc.

Hollis-Jefferson doesn’t provide the same deep threat — he is just a 22.9 percent career shooter from 3 — but he’s coming off his strongest performance of the season in the win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.

Hollis-Jefferson scored a season-high 21 points with six rebounds and three assists, playing a team-high 30 minutes. Dudley was a spectator for the final 21 minutes Sunday after scoring four points with two rebounds in 15 minutes.

Given how well RHJ played Sunday, how poorly Dudley has been shooting it of late and the fact that the next two games on this road trip are going to be extremely difficult (the Nets visit 9-1 Denver on Friday and 10-1 Golden State on Saturday), this might be a good time to make a switch.