Thomas didn't have the salary- cap flexibility to acquire a marquee free agent, so he did the next-best thing. He acquired a player who can stop some of those high-scor ing marquee players. Last year, just nine games into the season, Thomas had seen Paul Pierce put up 30 against the Knicks, Darius Miles 29, Peja Stojakovic 31, Kobe Bryant 42 and Carmelo Anthony 25 as Matt Barnes, Quentin Richardson, Trevor Ariza and Qyntel Woods were shuffled in and out of Larry Brown's dartboard lineups.

It had to stop. So now, when LeBron James, Vince Carter, Bryant, Pierce, Anthony and Tracy McGrady have the ball with that sparkle in their eyes, the 6-11 Jef fries should be there. When he was playing for the Wizards, he was usually assigned to cover the opposition's most potent scoring threat, like Carter.

"For his height, he moves his feet well," Carter said. "He's a shot-blocker, he's very versatile. So he's tough to guard as well. He's not the greatest shooter in the world, but his versatility makes it very tough -- but especially his ability to defend on the ball, and his help-side defense."

Thomas said he brought in Jeffries specifically to stop all those dangerous small forwards and big shooting guards who were lighting up the Knicks all last year.

"That's the hot spot in the league right now," Thomas ex plained.

The Knicks finished last season with the fourth-worst defensive scoring average, giving up a whopping 102 points per game. It's one of the more curious things about Thomas' reign as Knicks president -- that he assembled such poor defensive teams when he himself was the leader of the Detroit Pistons, one of the best defensive squads ever assembled. Jeffries is here to help change that.