Jeffries signing not splashy, but what Knicks need

	Jared Jeffries' unselfishness will be welcome in a Knicks locker room seemingly teeming with me-first players. Mitchell Layton/NBAE via Getty Images

When you live in New York, you become accustomed to some outrageous tabloid headlines. In fact, you become almost numb to the scandals that newspapers splash on their front and back pages: Randy Johnson attacks cameraman; Isiah Thomas sued for sexual harassment; Paul Lo Duca's marriage crumbles (complete with a picture of the soon-to-be ex-wife).

Yet for all the stories catering to the huddled masses, New York sports fans occasionally have a legitimate cause to pick up their papers.

Today is that day.

To the casual observer, the Knicks' signing of Jared Jeffries for $30 million over five years, as first reported by SI.com last Saturday, would appear to be little more than Thomas again overpaying for underwhelming talent. Last season Jeffries averaged 6.4 points as Washington's starting small forward, an average that would have ranked 10th on the Knicks, just barely ahead of Maurice Taylor and a tick behind Qyntel Woods. In four NBA seasons Jeffries, 24, boasts averages of 6.1 points and 4.9 rebounds.

So Jeffries is a bad signing, right? Wrong! Jeffries is the best signing the Knicks have made in years.

Forget the numbers. For the last two seasons Jeffries has played on an offensive juggernaut, a Wizards team that featured such elite scorers as Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. Jeffries wasn't asked to score. He didn't have to. He was asked to play defense (something no Knick has done in the Thomas era), and he performed this task effectively. In the 2006 postseason Jeffries frequently drew the assignment of guarding LeBron James, and while James was spectacular, Jeffries did a credible job despite rarely getting any help from his teammates.