Nets Are Scorching

Expectations were not high for Kris Humphries when the Nets traded (of all people) Eduardo Najera for him and Shawne Williams midway through last year. He had a reputation as a selfish brute short on skill with even less of a mental grasp for the game of basketball. In unsurprising fashion, he lived up to those impossibly lofty standards for the rest of the Nets’ historically hilarious 2009-2010 campaign.

This season didn’t look to be all that great for him right off the bat, either. The Nets were fresh off a deal to acquire the at-one-point-talented Troy Murphy, who was supposed to start, and with Derrick Favors on the roster, too (though it’s unclear if he ever actually cared enough about the team to unpack his bags), it was looking like Humphries wouldn’t see much more than mop-up duty.

But there’s a lesson in this: make every effort to find a roster spot in the NBA behind Murphy. He showed up to camp sluggish and out of shape, and a back injury kept him out of games for awhile. Humphries was tabbed the man to start in his massive void.

I had my reservations about that decision for a couple reasons: (1) Look at how Brook Lopez developed his rookie season while starting almost the entire season for the incomparably incompetent Josh Boone. Wouldn’t that work for Favors, too? And (2) Humphries had yet to prove he could be good at basketball.

Certainly he didn’t get on anyone’s good side by completely emasculating Lopez on the glass, and his relentless penchant to shoot the woefully inefficient 17-foot jump shot didn’t endear him to the basketball public much either. But much like George Costanza or a catchy commercial jingle, all it took was some forced exposure to hop on the Humphries bandwagon.

If there was one thing that made Hump a really lovable player was that he actually cared. One couldn’t say that for many Nets players this season, but Humphries wanted to excel on the court every time he laced up his shoes. Sometimes that drive manifested itself well (e.g., his hunger for rebounding) and others it did not (e.g., his unwavering commitment to shoot after beginning a dribble), but at least he was invested in winning.

(How sad is it when you place players in high regard simply because they care?)

Soon enough, Humphries was the lifeblood of the team. If it didn’t come via rebounding, it came via an electrifying transition dunk or an even more ridiculous block, but he became the vagrant’s Blake Griffin for Nets fans. Of course, it’s fair to say that Humphries’ spontaneous improvement might simply have been an ancillary benefit to his developing relationship with a person who shouldn’t be famous, and of course there were plenty of jokes to that same effect.

It’s funny that Nets followers went from praying every night last summer that Humphries wouldn’t exercise his player option so that the team would have more cap space to pursue a player better than Travis Outlaw in free agency to wanting desperately to re-sign him a summer later.

While Humphries’ contributions have been most stellar and most surprising, negotiations with Humphries should be a proceed-with-caution affair on the part of the Nets’ front office. Here are two reasons why:

(1) The Fluke Rule: It’s entirely possible that Humphries’ improvement was just a one-year foray from his typical substandard production; or, more likely …

(2) The Contract-Year Phenomenon: It’s an all-too-common occurrence in the NBA for players to ratchet up their efforts in the final year of their deals to sucker a team to pay them a lot of money for a lot of years thereafter, and it’s very possible Humphries has followed in these players’ footsteps. All the Nets can hope is that he’ll follow the Zach Randolph model of signing a ridiculously lucrative contract and then going Super Saiyan on the rest of the NBA.

Personally, I don’t think Humphries can be more than a $6-million-per-year investment for the franchise going forward. I realize what Humphries did for the team this year, stepping in to partially carry a limping team, but who knows if he can or will duplicate this year’s production? It’s kind of disheartening, but I’m not so sure all the money in his pocket next season won’t siphon the passion that made him such an asset this year.

Nevertheless, kudos on a surprising season to Kris Humphries.

So I got an interesting e-mail in my inbox last night, it was a couple links to a video interview and Rod Thorn’s breakdown of the roster.  Here is the video, you can also find it on the Nets’ official website:

I know that it is a long one, but I urge you guys to watch the whole thing.  It was interesting to hear Thorn discuss all these topics.  The most interesting thing I picked up from this video was around the 7 minute mark.  Here, Thorn was asked about the potential free agency pool, and while he can’t mention anyone by name (NBA rule) it seemed like Thorn went out of his way to call the pool “average”.  Now this is true, there aren’t any big names coming out, but after hearing this video, I don’t expect to see anyone new joining the roster besides the rookies (A complete change from last year).  This is a real smart move on Thorn’s part though, because the Nets are in a position where they want to save money (whether they admit it or not) and now Thorn is making an excuse not to spend this offseason (even though it is somewhat valid) that isn’t the money.  That way Thorn doesn’t come off as cheap to the fans.

Now this isn’t all we got from Thorn.  He also wen’t down the roster one-by-one and made a little statement about each one of them.  You can find the whole thing here, but I am just going to post and comment on a few of these.

Rod Thorn On Vince:

“I think Vince had a tremendous year, both on the court and in the locker room. I think he was a very positive influence on our younger players with his support. And there are very few guys in this league who can average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, so you have to give him credit. I think he had a great year.”

Every statement that Rod Thorn has made about Vince as of late has been very lovey-dovey.  It is starting to become obvious that VC will be a Net next year unless some team makes us an offer we can’t refuse on draft day.

Rod Thorn On CDR:

“Give Chris a lot of credit; he hardly played at all at the beginning of the year, but continued to work hard, got better and when his time came, he took advantage of it. he’s as confident as anybody on our team, he’s got deceiving size: he doesn’t look as big as he is. When he goes to the bucket, he’s got great finish on his drive game. An improving shooter, and I think he’s got a good future.”

High praise for CDR here.  I like how Thorn talks about his height, what I read from this statement is that Thorn would like to see CDR get time at the 3 next year.  If this is true you can see the Nets drafting a 4 this year.  Sorry DeMar DeRozan fans (I am not one of these by the way).

Rod Thorn On Yi:

“Yi had his ups and downs early. Right before he got hurt, he was playing his best ball of the year. He can shoot the ball, he’s athletic and can run the court. He needs to work, needs to just play more, and add strength.”

Rod keeps this one short and sweet.  Now I know he can’t just flat out say that he made a mistake with this trade, but you have to believe that is what he is thinking now-a-days.

Rod Thorn On Josh Boone:

“Josh was kind of up and down, had some real good moments, some not-so-good. Athletic, good hands, nice feel for the game, understands how to play. Needs to work on his shot obviously, his free throws and really get himself in top condition.”

This is the most negative Thorn was in these comments.  Again maybe I am looking too much into it (or maybe I want it to happen so bad I am taking everything to mean it), but I think what Thorn says here is just screaming “Boone isn’t getting the job done and we need to draft a 4 this year!”  But hey, maybe that is the conspiracy theorist in me.