It’s a telling point about Knicks management that just beyond the halfway point of the season the team is still trying to establish an effective rotation. The Knicks seem split into scorers and “energy” guys, and coach Isiah Thomas has failed to develop a personnel usage pattern that maximizes the skill sets of his players.

At present, most of the scorers — guard Jamal Crawford, center Eddy Curry, forward Zach Randolph, and swingman Quentin Richardson — start, and the team then brings in the energy guys — forwards David Lee and Renaldo Balkman, guard Nate Robinson, and swingman Jared Jeffries — as a single unit in the second quarter. The problem with this alignment is twofold: The scorers don’t play enough defense to keep the team competitive, and the energy guys often lack enough scoring punch. Yet there’s been little mixing and matching.

I have a modest proposal. Start Jeffries. No, he’s not a diamond in the rough. Jeffries has little offensive skill, but he’s a good defensive player, and there are too many non-scorers in the energy group. His presence on that unit sometimes forces Balkman to the bench which further diminishes the team. However, Jeffries could help the Knicks in the starting unit. He doesn’t need the ball to be effective. He can guard the other team’s best wing player, and with the Knicks deploying zone defenses more and more (in their 106–104 loss to Golden State on Sunday night, the Knicks used a zone for nearly a quarter-and-a half), Jeffries’s length will become a potent weapon in creating turnovers. This week, the Knicks will face the following guards: Kobe Bryant, Ronnie Brewer, Brandon Roy, and Kevin Durant. Having a solid defender at the guard position could make a difference.

Jeffries would replace Mardy Collins in the starting lineup, and the two are similar players, but Jeffries represents a slight upgrade. The move would enable Collins, or more likely Fred Jones when he returns from illness, to move in with the energy unit. The second unit needs another guard who can score in order to give Jamal Crawford a rest. Although Crawford is playing his best basketball of the season this month, his burn should worry all Knicks fans. He’s averaged 45 minutes a contest. With that kind of workload, either his effectiveness or his health (remember Crawford is rail thin at 6 feet 5 inches, 190 pounds) will suffer.

The Knicks need to consider changes in their starting lineup as they are still getting killed in the first quarter. In a study posted at knickerblogger. net, the Knicks have been outscored by a whopping 155 points in the first quarter. The locals have a total point differential of negative 260 and the second worst frame is the third quarter, which usually features the starting five again, at negative 70 points.

I don’t think moving Jeffries into the starting lineup will solve that problem entirely. In fact, were it left to my devices, I’d move Lee and Balkman into the starting lineup with Curry and Richardson becoming part of a second unit with Jeffries, Collins, and Robinson, but no one from the Garden has rung me up to ask. I do think the Jeffries move is consistent with the philosophy of this administration that values playing free agent signees ahead of draft picks or players signed directly from the college ranks. Consider that Jerome James, a 32-year-old pivotman who has demonstrated little in the way of basketball skill while in a Knicks uniform since signing a free agent deal in 2005, has managed to get into two games this month, while Randolph Morris, a 22-year-old shot blocker signed straight out of the University of Kentucky due to a loophole, remains nailed to the bench.

Jeffries was signed to a five year, $30 million deal two summers ago, despite the Knicks drafting of the superior Renaldo Balkman a month before. I’m sure Thomas would like to prove that he knew what he was doing (rather than just throwing around Dolan’s money) with the signing. Moving Jeffries into the starting lineup would bolster Thomas’s sense that he makes good personnel decisions, and unlike playing James over Morris, the move would actually help the team at the points in the game where it is weakest. It’s a small incremental move but the dividends are worth it.

mjohnson@nysun.com