INGLEWOOD — Journeys don’t always travel smooth roads. There can be rough patches and detours, stop signs and green lights. Clippers forward Kris Dunn knows all too well how an intended path can switch up quickly or take 10 years to straighten out.
Take for instance his desire to play football like his father. When his family moved from sunny Virginia to the snowy northeast, he decided he liked playing basketball indoors better. “It was too cold,” he said.
Today, Dunn is an elite defender in the NBA – not the NFL – and a starter for the Clippers (13-9). He also is a key reason why the team is rated among the top five defensive teams in the league and has beaten a handful of top offensive teams.
Dunn, an eight-year veteran, typically is tasked with the most challenging defensive assignment no matter the opponent, showing a versatility and bravado that has led to the 6-foot-3 guard defending the likes of 6-11 Kevin Durant, two-time league MVP Steph Curry and 7-3 Victor Wembanyama.
“I think (defense) has just been a habit, from football, and it transferred to basketball,” said Dunn, who had four steals in their 126-122 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.
Under the guidance of assistant coach and defensive guru Jeff Van Gundy, the Clippers, fueled in part by Dunn’s intensity, were tied for fourth in the league in defensive rating (107.7) through Sunday..
Dunn boasts a steal rate exceeding 2.0% and opponents shoot just 42.9% with him as the primary defender, the lowest among Clippers who are defending at least eight shots per game.
“He can guard multiple positions. He’s tough, he’s physical, he’s strong and he takes pride in guarding and so that’s good to see,” head coach Tyronn Lue said. “… (he) just plays his role and does the right thing every night.”
Like most basketball players, Dunn wants the ball in his hands. Given his size, he knew early on that he was unlikely to be an offensive threat, so he focused on impacting the game on the other side.
“I knew being a good defender that I could get the ball by getting steals and then as I got to college, I started watching film, started watching people around the league in the NBA and steal some of things they do defensively and just try to add it to my game,” he said.
Yet, Dunn never thought about playing in the NBA until his final year at Providence. In fact, he hadn’t thought about college until after measuring his talents against other players in AAU as a high schooler and his father urged him to start thinking seriously about how basketball could change his life.
“He put college in my ear and me playing AAU basketball, I started to see some of my other friends starting to get scholarships,” said Dunn, a high school All-American in 2012, said. “But the NBA wasn’t my initial thought when I was in high school and even when I was in college.”
Although highly recruited, Dunn, who averaged 26.5 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and five assists for a state championship team as a junior at New London (Conn.) High, made the unlikely decision to attend Providence, which hadn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years.
He reportedly chose Providence because of then-head coach Ed Cooley, who had a similar upbringing, emerging from poverty to become a successful coach. Dunn could identify with the struggle.
But his college path was derailed early on by two shoulder surgeries. The first one happened before his freshman season, but he eventually returned in December and played the rest of the season (25 games). A year later, he re-injured the shoulder after four games and missed the rest of his sophomore season.
“After my first two years, I was just thinking about just trying to get back and play the game I love and have fun with it,” Dunn said.
Dunn had more than fun. He returned from the second surgery to earn Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year following the 2014-2015 season. He averaged 15.6 points and led the conference in assists and steals per game.
Dunn came back for his redshirt junior season, and he was named one of 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award and earned his second Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Dunn was taken as the fifth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He had made it to the NBA, a trek he didn’t think possible when he was a young kid growing up in Virginia.
“Kris is one of my favorite players that I’ve worked with because of his leadership and his toughness and his competitive spirit,” said Clippers broadcaster Don MacLean, who worked with young players before draft combines. “I commented to the rest of the guys that the days he wasn’t there … the level of the group really came down.”
Dunn’s stay in Minnesota lasted only one season before he was traded to the Chicago Bulls, where he played for three seasons. After ensuing brief stints in Atlanta (missing 62 games in 2020-21 due to injuries) and Portland (14 games) and a season with the Agua Caliente Clippers in the G League, Dunn wasn’t seen as a reliable contributor, and he started the 2022-23 season again in the G League, this time with the Capital City Go-Go’s.
Six years after being the fifth overall pick, Dunn was competing against players fresh out of college in the developmental league. But he didn’t get discouraged and played well enough to earn a pair of 10-day contracts with the Utah Jazz, eventually securing a multi-year, $2.6 million deal in 2022.
In 22 games in the first season of that deal, he averaged 13.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.6 assists but saw those numbers drop significantly last season and was included in the trade that sent Russell Westbrook from the Clippers to Utah (which waived the future Hall of Famer).
“I always believed,” Dunn said. “When I was in the G League, I took the time to really develop my jump shot, but more so just show teams that I’m back healthy, show teams I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get back in the league.”
And when he got the call from Utah?
“It definitely was a grateful one. It just shows a lot of hard work that you put in,” Dunn said. “God is real. I always kept the faith, and my family was super excited. But we knew there was more work to be done. I just didn’t want to get the call up and get sent back down.”
There is little chance of that happening now. Dunn moved into a starting role with the Clippers after 11 games this season and has been averaging 6.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals, creating a solid pathway moving forward.
Bernie Lee, Dunn’s agent, said his client never gave up despite the injuries, trades and being sent down.
“He could have been broken by it or empowered by it and I think for him he chose to own the situation for what it was, really learn from it, put his head down and work,” Lee said. “I think what we are seeing now, the way he can bring that real world perspective can be very energizing to a team.”
Dunn is no stranger to hard work and hardship.
For the first 10 years of his life, he grew up without a father. His mother, Pia, had taken Dunn, then just a year old, and his older brother, John, from Connecticut to Virginia without telling their father.
Throughout their childhoods, Pia reportedly would be in trouble with the law, sometimes spending a day or two in jail for minor offenses. Things got tougher when their mother was locked up for months and the two boys stayed quiet.
According to a 2016 USA Today article, the brothers got money in part by hustling: John gambled with dice, Kris challenged kids to 1-on-1 games of basketball. Dunn confirmed those facts in a recent interview.
Dunn and his brother were eventually reunited with their father, Sheldon, after Pia was locked up for a final time, and the brothers moved back to Connecticut. It wasn’t a smooth transition as their father tried to integrate them into his family, which included a stepson and two daughters of his own.
Dunn was quoted as saying that the reunion was “very emotional.”
But he and his father bonded over their love of sports, cementing a lifelong connection that has been passed down to Dunn’s young son.
“I want to say this is what it should have been, but as the years went on and the relationship grew, it was one of the best things that happened to me,” Dunn said of his father, who remains a large part of his life today.
“He was definitely a great role model for me from the time I met him when I was 10 to now,” Dunn added. “Not only did I have a role model that could teach me and teach my son but also, he’s been here for the whole time. So, to have him a part of my life, a grandfather to my son … it’s just a beautiful thing to see all of us together.”
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Intuit Dome, Inglewood
TV/radio: FDSNSC, 570 AM
