The Washington Wizards announced Monday they will not match an offer sheet signed by restricted free agent forward Jared Jeffries.
Jeffries signed the reported five-year, $30 million offer from the New York Knicks last Monday and the Wizards, who had one week to match, let Jeffries depart. In a morning press conference at Verizon Center, president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld discussed the reasons for not matching the offer sheet for Jeffries, who started 77 games last season and established himself as one of their better defensive players. Jeffries’ agent, Andy Miller, publicly lobbied the Wizards not to match the Knicks’ offer sheet.
“Jared’s representative made crystal clear that he preferred to play in New York and that he wanted to have a bigger role,” Grunfeld said. “We feel like we have plenty of players on this team to take up that slack. We have players who want to be here.”
While mulling Jeffries’ fate, the Wizards signed free agent guard DeShawn Stevenson, who started all 82 games last season for the Orlando Magic and averaged 11 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. Stevenson, a 25-year-old entering his seventh NBA season, has developed a reputation as a hard-nosed defender. According to Grunfeld, Stevenson will compete with Wizards guard Jarvis Hayes for the starting shooting guard spot. Hayes has played just 75 games the past two seasons because of knee injuries.
“We wanted someone who can defend out on the perimeter, someone who’s tough, someone who’s very competitive” Grunfeld said. “DeShawn has done that in the past. That could be a role that he can fill for us.”
Stevenson came cheap, signing a two-year contract at a reported $932,000 per season just a few months after turning down a reported three-year, $10 million offer from Orlando. He was Washington’s second free agent signing of the summer after the Wizards inked forward Darius Songaila. The Wizards hope those additions, plus increased roles for a now-healthy Hayes and promising second-year forward Andray Blatche, offset the loss of Jeffries, who averaged 6.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last season. Jeffries, 24, was selected 11th overall by the Wizards in the first round of the 2002 NBA Draft.
“When we put everything together, with the development of our young players and the additions that we’ve made this offseason and Jarvis coming back, we feel like we’ve added four players and lost just one,” Grunfeld said. “I think we’re comfortable with that.”
