Washington Wizards, 2015-2016 Player Previews

Kris Humphries, 2014-15 regular season stats: 8 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 47% FG%, 74% FT%, 21 minutes, 64 games

During his time in the NBA, Kris Humphries has always been a polarizing figure.

Fans of the teams he plays on usually love him and the fans of the opposing teams usually hate him. Humphries has even been accused of going for his stats for personal gain rather than play as a team. You either appreciate his style of play or you don’t; there is rarely an in between with him.

It seems like he always has an “I’m better than you” type smirk on his face, he doles out hard fouls and (the elephant that’s always in the rooms he’s in) the whole Kim Kardashian reality show thing.

However, if you take a closer look the games he’s played in and how long he has stuck around the league, Humphries has been a very solid pro throughout his NBA career. His calling card in the NBA has been and will always be things such as: offensive rebounding, hustle plays like diving on the floor for a loose ball, or hitting the wide open mid-range jumper.

Humphries started the 2014-15 season with a vengeance. Serving as a sixth man for the Washington Wizards replacing Nene; his energy, hustle and rebounding had the team rolling and winning. Some even questioned whether he should start over Nene because of how well he ran the pick and roll with John Wall.

Ultimately, Humphries was rebounding and scoring on a pace we all knew he wouldn’t be able to sustain and when he did “come down” coupled with a reoccurring foot injury pop up, he fell out of the rotation all together.

In addition, once Coach Randy Wittman decided play small-ball in the playoffs, which meant bring Otto Porter off the bench and sliding Paul Pierce to the four, the minutes just weren’t there for Humphries.

With the Washington Wizards planning on playing small-ball more this upcoming season, it remains to be seen if Humphries can actually crack the rotation and get back to the level he was playing at the beginning of the 2014-2015 season.

He’s been working on his three point shot so that he could be utilized as a stretch four whenever the Wizards go small. That remains to be seen. I actually like the Washington Wizards’ offensive flow with Humphries in the game.

As noted earlier, he is an excellent pick-and-roll big and the defense has to respect his mid-range jumper. Humphries is also mobile enough on defense to cover other teams that play the new fad of small-ball.

The knock on Humphries is that when it’s not going well for him, he REALLY struggles and the team is affected. It also didn’t help Humphries that veteran Drew Gooden reinvented himself as a reliable stretch four and instant offense option (with some good defense thrown in) during the playoffs for the Wizards.

With the Washington Wizards’ current shortage of backup centers on the rosters, Humphries has a chance to earn minutes and make a good impression early with strong play.