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crzymdups
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/sports/basketball/08knicks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Knicks Add Adept Pillar to Budding Frontcourt
By HOWARD BECK
Published: August 8, 2006
Jared Jeffries has exceptionally long limbs, enviable quickness and a well-developed urge to defend. He can play three positions, does not need the ball to thrive and, by all accounts, is a very good person.
Jeffries is, in short, everything the Knicks needed but could not have hoped to obtain when free agency opened July 1. That he will be introduced as their new small forward this afternoon is one of the bigger surprises of a dreary N.B.A. off-season.
Jeffries officially joined the Knicks yesterday when his former team, the Washington Wizards, declined to match a five-year, $30 million offer sheet. Because Jeffries was a restricted free agent, the Wizards had the right to match any offer.
Knicks officials declined to comment yesterday. Isiah Thomas, the coach and team president, will present Jeffries to the news media today at Madison Square Garden.
That the Knicks are introducing a significant new player at all is something of a surprise. Thomas had said he did not expect to make a major roster move or use the team’s midlevel salary-cap exception. Thomas ended up giving Jeffries the entire exception (a starting salary of $5.2 million).
Thomas has long been a fan, and a friend, of Jeffries. Both played at Indiana University, and Thomas maintains deep ties in Bloomington, where Jeffries was born. Jeffries was 12 years old when they first met.
At 6 feet 11 inches and 240 pounds, Jeffries is a long, lithe defender who can play shooting guard and both forward slots. In a pinch, he can even defend some centers. Last season, he guarded the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant (6-6), the Timberwolves’ Kevin Garnett (6-11) and the Rockets’ Yao Ming (7-6).
In four N.B.A. seasons, all with Washington, Jeffries averaged 6.1 points and 4.8 rebounds. He is not regarded as much of a shooter. But the Knicks’ needs — defense and selfless play — are Jeffries’s strengths.
Jeffries also fits in with the Knicks as a long-term solution at small forward. The Knicks’ other options are less than ideal: Jalen Rose is 33 and will certainly be gone, via trade or release, by next summer. Renaldo Balkman, the 20th pick in the June draft, is a raw talent. Malik Rose and David Lee are better suited playing power forward and Quentin Richardson is better suited at shooting guard.
Now the Knicks can sell the vision of a young, still-developing and very tall frontcourt that could spend many years together. Center Eddy Curry and power forward Channing Frye are only 23. Jeffries is 24. All are listed at 6-11.
No one around the league, particularly in Washington, expected Jeffries to leave. The Wizards offered him a more lucrative deal in early July: $33 million over six years.
But Jeffries had hoped for more and apparently ran out of patience. He signed the offer sheet with the Knicks on July 28. Even then, it appeared that Wizards officials, who all spoke glowingly of Jeffries, were inclined to match the offer.
But guard DeShawn Stevenson, cast aside by the Orlando Magic after turning down a $10 million deal, became an unexpected, and cheap, alternative. The Wizards signed him over the weekend for the league minimum salary, $932,000.
Wizards officials, in particular the owner, Abe Pollin, were also put off by comments made by Jeffries’s agent, Andy Miller, after Jeffries signed the Knicks’ offer sheet. Miller said Jeffries was no longer interested in playing for Washington and hoped the Wizards would let him go.
“From the statements that we got from his agent, it was very obvious that this is not the team that Jared was committed to,’’ Ernie Grunfeld, the Wizards’ president, told Washington reporters yesterday.
Had Stevenson not fallen into their laps, the Wizards would probably have kept Jeffries.
As it stands, the Wizards have plenty of depth to replace Jeffries. Stevenson and Jarvis Hayes, who missed most of last season, will rotate at shooting guard. The Wizards also signed the veteran forward Darius Songaila, for $21 million over five years, on July 19. And team officials say they are thrilled with the progress of forward Andray Blatche.
“With the addition of DeShawn and Darius, Jarvis’s health and Andray’s development, we look at it like we have four solid additions against one departure,’’ Grunfeld said.
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8/8/2006 8:13 AM
