What we need from you: Jared Jeffries

by Tommy Dee on August 21st, 2008 at 11:11 am

In the first of a bunch of installments, TKB pleads with current Knicks to listen to Mike D’Antoni and his on-court expectations. Since he may be the second most brutal important contract on the team in terms of being must-moved with hope of restoring cap order, we’ll start with Jared Jeffries.

Since we understand that limited role players on bad teams are essentially deemed as bad players (I mean how important are intangibles when you lose by 15 every night?), Jeffries has fallen into the worthless category with the Knicks. We feel that will change. He’s long and a solid perimeter defender who can fill in at the 3/4 for some minutes, and may attract some playoff teams into inquiring about him at the trade deadline, so long as the Knicks eat some of his 19.4 million remaining.

If Jeffries can guard 3s like he did against Paul Pierce in last year’s preseason battle with the Celts, and avoids any impulse to shoot jumpshots, he could be a nice fit in D’Antoni’s style. He does have a pretty decent IQ and could be a bench, glue-type. If he can handle stepping aside to Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler yet still provide hard defense, we’ll consider it a good year for JJ2. It would be a great year if he can play himself into being traded come the deadline.
  • Loveofthegame05

    Well said Tommy, He wasn’t signed for his offense. But he’s a great athlete especially for his size. In D’antoni’s system I think you’ll see an increase in his ppg

  • http://www.theknicksblog.com/2008/08/22/what-we-need-from-you-chris-duhon/ The Knicks Blog » What We Need From You: Chris Duhon

    [...] What we need from you: Jared Jeffries [...]