JEFFRIES' STOCK PLUMMETING
By Marc Berman
January 29, 2007 | 10:00am
MILWAUKEE – The defensive small forward addition of the summer did it all yesterday – made steals, grabbed rebounds, had offensive putbacks, flew in for a rim-ratting dunk. He scored 12 points, four steals had 8 rebounds in 19 minutes.
This defensive small forward is rookie Renaldo Balkman, not the $30 million Jared Jeffries.
The embarrassing demotion of Jeffries continued yesterday. Jeffries, who appears to be permanently out of the starting lineup in favor of 52-point man Jamal Crawford, played just 2:33 off the bench in the Knicks' loss to the Bucks.
It's one thing to sit for Crawford. But now Jeffries is losing time to Balkman. And Jeffries put it all on him.
"I've got to play better," Jeffries said. "I can't worry about how much time you get. The time you do get, you got to make an impact and play better. If I do that, I'll play more."
Before Jeffries was yanked from the starting lineup Friday for Crawford, he had received two massive benchings – playing a total of 9:14 in the prior two outings.
Yesterday, in his cameo, Jeffries blew a layup and then threw away an outlet pass after gaining a rebound.
"I always want to play more, but I know what I got to do, to get more playing time," Jeffries said. "I put myself in this position. If I played better when I was getting more minutes, I wouldn't be in this position. It's up to me to find my rhythm. If I get for minutes, make something happen."
It will be impossible for Thomas to trade Jeffries now, especially because in his anxiousness to make sure Washington did not match the free-agent offer, he has a 15-percent trade kicker.
Thomas made a "Wally Pipp" reference Saturday in terms of Crawford replacing Jeffries in the starting lineup – a bad sign for Jeffries. "Jamal's playing great, it's a good decision for the team," Jeffries said.
Balkman was at his active best, scoring on four putbacks. If Balkman continues to progress, Jeffries could be seeing DNPs soon.
"I got my chance to go out and play," Balkman said. "He called my name. I wanted to make the best of it. The momentum was going my way."
Balkman's playing time has been up and down all season. "It's what rookies do," Balkman said. "You wait your turn."
Crawford, in his second straight start and first since his 52-point explosion Friday, missed his first six shots before finally scoring on a fastbreak layup with 1:12 left in the half.
In fact, Crawford didn't touch the ball for the first few minutes.
"The first game after a game like that is probably the hardest because of the focus," Crawford said.
"My teammates kept encouraging me to stay with it because the shots I took weren't bad shots."
marc.berman@nypost.com
Filed under new york knicks , 1/29/07
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