San Antonio Spurs Need To Find The Richard Jefferson They Traded For.

When Spurs fans heard that Richard Jefferson was coming to town there were huge cheers. Great Antonio McDyess is on board. Nice pick up in Dejuan Blair.

But Jefferson was the key. Jefferson is the key.

Just what the ex Champions needed. A scorer to inject some teeth into the offense. Someone to take the pressure off Tim Duncan.

Tony Parker will score but he cannot do it alone. Manu is getting on in age. Never mind a history of injuries.

Clearly the Spurs need Jefferson to be the single minded assassin that he has been throughout his career. On Defence they need to maintain that cohesiveness that has been their identity.

For the last ten years the Spurs have always ranked top five in points allowed. The reason they won the “boring” title of which they traded for Championships.

In the playoffs last year, they were easily dispatched by their rivals the Dallas Mavericks. Even though they were the top seed in the matchup, they won only one game out of five.

First time Coach Greg Popovich has ever finished the season in the first round of the playoffs during the Tim Duncan era.

In the last playoff game, Tim Duncan scored 30 points and Tony Parker had 26 in a 103-93 loss. No one else scored in double figures.

“They had more firepower than us. They played better than us,'' said Duncan summarising last summer's series.

Richard Jefferson was a key component of the New Jersey Nets that lost in the finals to the Spurs in 2004. He is a proven scorer that has a career average of 17.6 points per game – prior to joining Spurs.

He spent last year with the Milwaukee Bucks however upon being traded to San Antonio he said they made him relevant again. They need each other. The Spurs make more noise than the Bucks, as contenders.

It has not been all bad for Jefferson. While Duncan and Parker were out with injuries he did lead the Spurs to victory over the Mavericks and the Toronto Raptors. He scored 29 and 24 points, respectively, in those games.

However in his last five games he averages 9 points and less than 3 rebounds and his overall field goal percentage is .286.

Last night’s game against the Celtics, saw him finish 0-4 from three point land and finished 3-13 for 6 points.

His coach admits that fitting in is a slow process.