Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni never wanted to part with Jared Jeffries last February. Now he’ll soon be getting him back to solve the Knicks’ desperate need for a center following the Carmelo Anthony blockbuster that decimated their size.
After yesterday’s trade deadline, the Rockets agreed to buy out Jeffries, and Knicks president Donnie Walsh is prepared to make the 6-foot-11 big man a Knick again, an NBA source told The Post.
The Jeffries buyout will become official today. Jeffries must clear waivers and probably won’t be signed until Sunday, possibly in time to play against the Heat.
The Knicks view him as a potential starter. His agent is Andy Miller, who also represents Chauncey Billups.
The Knicks will have to cut a player because they have the 15 maximum on their roster. Isiah Thomas’ first-round draft bust, Renaldo Balkman, acquired in the Melo deal, is the top candidate to go, unless the Knicks deem Kelenna Azubuike’s knee hopeless.
Jeffries fell out of the Houston rotation this season and the Rockets tried to move him at the deadline to no avail.
D’Antoni thought Jeffries fit in as the perfect defensive glue guy last season and made him their starting center – their lone solid interior defensive force. Jeffries was so versatile he sometimes defended point guard.
Jeffries, signed by Thomas for the mid-level exception, was traded by the Knicks at last year’s deadline to open up more cap space when Rockets GM Daryl Morey pawned off Tracy McGrady.
Meanwhile, Walsh is mulling signing a second big man. Free-agent center Earl Barron, whom one league person calls “their ace in the hole,” is an option. But Walsh said he’d look at others, including in Europe, where his second-round pick, Jerome Jordan, is playing in Turkey.
The Knicks were desperate for a big man after the Anthony trade cost them starting center 7-1 Timofey Mozgov and the 6-10 Anthony Randolph.
Walsh tried to get involved in a last-minute deal and inquired about Nazr Mohammed, Nenad Krstic and Joel Pryzbilla, all of whom were traded yesterday. Walsh said he lost any shot at them after trading all his young assets to Denver, including Anthony Randolph.
“We’ll see if there’s a big man out there, which is hard, because people who have good big men don’t [waive] them,” Walsh said.