Westchester Knicks guard/forward DaQuan Jeffries. (Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports)
The New York Knicks accomplished a ton this season but there is still work to do. That means tweaking the edges of their roster and dropping these players.
Even with a playoff exit that came earlier than they were hoping, this season was a resounding success for the New York Knicks. They bounced back from last season’s regression, making the playoffs for just the second time in a decade, and knocked off the higher-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.
Jalen Brunson emerged as a star, Julius Randle adjusted and young players like Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Obi Toppin found more consistent roles and more success than at any other time in Tom Thibodeau’s tenure.
The Knicks are a team on the rise but they still have some changes to make this offseason, clearing out the roster detritus from previous iterations of this team and continuing to upgrade for next season.
These New York Knicks definitely won’t be back next season:
3. DaQuan Jeffries
Jeffries is an undrafted wing out of Tulsa who has played just 643 minutes over his three-year career, despite spending time on the rosters of seven different teams as he cycled through a series of partially guaranteed and 10-day contracts. He signed a two-way contract with the Knicks in the fall, was waived and the proceeded to sign two more 10-day contracts with New York before they signed him to a multi-year contract on March 26.
However, he never actually appeared in a game for the Knicks and his minimum salary for next season is not fully guaranteed. Clearly, someone in New York liked him enough to keep him on the fringes all season but expect the Knicks to find another use for his roster spot next season.