DaQuan Jeffries had a nice showing in Wednesday scrimmage between the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat.
The 6’5”, 230-pound Jeffries entered the game off the bench and gave the Kings an immediate boost, throwing down an alley-oop from Yogi Ferrell and nailing a three shortly after entering. He finished with 12 points (on 5-6 from the floor), 2 assists and 1 steal in 18 minutes.
He showed athleticism, a shooting touch, court vision, nice patience and an ability to play within the flow of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdck5xlIvks
Jeffries averaged 16.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals in the G-League last season with the Stockton Kings. He played in a handful of NBA games with the Sacramento Kings this season, but logged very minimal minutes in each.
Jeffries played power forward at the University of Tulsa and has developed the ability to defend and play offense on the wing. In December, he dropped 44 points (15-27 from the field) and 10 rebounds in a game against Sioux Falls Skyforce.
He also had a 20-point, 18-rebound performance in that same month against the Iowa Wolves.
During training camp in Orlando, Jeffries has been playing at the three and the four, according to Luke Walton. With Harrison Barnes’ return still up in the air, Jeffries could be in line for a great opportunity.
Yeah, that’s a realistic possibility if Harrison cannot join us, Walton said. What we like about him is he’s a very tough young man, and I mean that from both physically and mentally, and on defense and on offense. He does a nice job of not forcing anything. He looks to be aggressive, but he plays within what we’re trying to get done and defensively we feel very confident in his ability to guard multiple positions. And he’s been doing that during this camp so far, and I thought he did it again tonight.
Jeffries considers himself a Three-And-D guy and appears to be aware of where he fits in and what he needs to work on. When asked what his biggest takeaway from the game was, he responded with a self-critique: “Making the right defensive calls on the defensive end. There [were] a couple screens that I didn’t call out for Yogi [Ferrell] and boxing out my man on the other side small things.
Even though he made both of his threes in Wednesday’s game, he shot 33 percent from three in Stockton, so he might not be a knock-down, three-point shooter over the long-term, but he can catch fire and his defensive presence and athleticism is something that should certainly help if Barnes remains out.
I am looking forward to seeing more out of this young man.
DaQuan Jeffries could be just what the Kings need in the absence of Luka Doncic.
I like Justin James as well.
You can’t pay Bogdan too much, if at all, with Buddy/Harrison around too
Letting Bogdan walk for nothing because they overpaid Hield and Barnes would be pretty peak Kangz.
Because he’s such a difference maker…
team has bills. Extending Fox, needing to keep Holmes, Bagley, wanting to keep good depth a la Len/Baze
If you’re worried about keeping Len/Baze you’re doing it wrong.
At this rate, keeping Bagley should not be factoring into any current off-season signing. If by some miracle Bagley pans out, you can make moves. At this point, though, him panning out is incredibly far from being a probably outcome
edit: replied to the wrong comment
Somewhat off-topic (I’m not sure if Jeffries did this last night), but how many times did we step out of bounds on the sideline that game? It seemed like a lot, and it seems I’ve seen it happen like 1 or 2 times every game (from lots of teams).
Got me thinking… has the NBA changed its court size in the 75+ years they’ve been playing? Players are much bigger than they were in the 1950’s, so I think it’s something they should look at. I know they’ll be reluctant to remove prime seating from their venues, but it could really open up the game for these guys.
The court size has never changed but the lines painted on it have changed quite a bit. The lane was 6 feet and then expanded to 12 feet to keep George Mikan from destroying everyone (sort of worked) and then 16 feet to keep Wilt from destroying everyone (did not work even a little bit). The 3 point line, the moved 3 point line, the moved back 3 point line, the hash marks all of that has changed, but never the size of the court or the height of the baskets.
I think that generally the size of the court is fine but the one upside of widening it would be to eliminate the break that makes corner 3s such a desirable shot. I would be wary about widening too much though since actually giving players more room to operate in the corner would make defense nearly impossible.
I’d be in favor of widening the court, but keeping the 3 point line as is. More open high-scoring games are a good thing imo.
I think the reason for the uptick is that they moved the benches further away from the court for social distancing purposes.
Players are used to the edge of the court being much closer to the bench & use the bench as a marker for where the line is. With everything shifted, it’s disorienting.
Yeah I think that has a lot to do with it. I’m just surprised that the overall size of the court has not changed since the 1940’s. With the size and speed of the players increasing so drastically over that time, I think the game could really open up if they adjusted the court size to accommodate these giants. Probably could say the same for other sports as well.
Sorry, this had nothing to do with the article content. Just something I was thinking about while watching the game.
Almost all of the guys on this roster are easy to root for, but Jeffries’ story is the type that really makes you pull for a player’s success. Not handed a thing, having to earn it every step of the way.
The existence of guys like Jeffries is why you don’t pay much for guys like Bazemore.
Didn’t get a chance to watch the “tape” yet, but it looks like Jeffries played well. That’s good to see. However, Baze has been a real find for the Kings. I’m definitely hoping they resign him. If Jeffries keeps playing well, great. But Baze just fits with this team.
2 years, $16 mil for Baze, or 3 for $15 seems about right, and you might be able to get him for less (like 2 and $10 or $12), but who the hell knows. The salary cap will likely be shot to hell for next year.
Baze is Baze. He’s a high energy, good defending SG who can slide onto the smaller SFs at times and every 3rd year or so randomly shoots well enough not to be a complete negative on offense. He’s a fine 4th or 5th wing to have on the roster, but there’s no reason to pay real money for his production. Players like Jeffries or Nwaba could approximate his production for the league minimum.
Jeffries and Gabe Vincent were the best former Stockton Kings players on the court last night.
I really liked what I saw from him the other night.
He is thick, but hopefully can find a role on this team because he is easy to root for and does a lot of things right.
He reminds me of a thicker, more offensive version of Justin Anderson. I think his ceiling could be similar to PJ Tucker and his floor could be somewhere around Justin Anderson.
I think his game complements the kings really well because he can do some of the midrange stuff that they lack without Harrison Barnes.
I really like both Jefferies and James, and think they could provide the Kings with young, cheap depth moving forward.
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