Despite having made only two three-pointers through the first 11 seasons of his career, Humphries attempted to rebrand himself as a stretch four to begin the past season with the Wizards, an experiment that didn't yield many encouraging results. While he was able to connect on 34.3 percent of his three-point attempts during his time in Washington, Humphries eventually ended up losing out on his starting role to the more efficient Jared Dudley by late November. Humphries would then go on to miss more than a month with a knee injury before he was traded to the Suns, who subsequently waived him after he made four appearances for the team. He latched on with the Hawks soon after, and proved to be a capable frontcourt option off the bench. Humphries averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds across 14.0 minutes per game in his 21 regular-season appearances with the team, and though he lacks the rim-protecting abilities most teams value in their backup big men, he showed enough for the Hawks to bring him back on a one-year contract. He'll compete with Mike Scott and Mike Muscala for the final two frontcourt spots in coach Mike Budenholzer's regular rotation.
With Nene Hilario on the decline, Humphries could find himself with a nice role on the 2015-16 Wizards. Humphries primarily came off the bench in his first year in Washington. He appeared in 64 games and started 17. In 21 minutes per game, he provided 8.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.4 blocks. He missed all seven of his three-point attempts. Humphries is particularly adept at corralling offensive rebounds, and more than a third of his career boards have come off his own team's misses. As a starter, Humphries improved his production to 8.6 points and 7.6 rebounds in 26 minutes. In January, he averaged 9.0 points and 8.3 rebounds over 17 games. The 6-9 forward missed all of March with a groin injury, and he only made one token appearance in the last game of the sweep over the Raptors in the first round of the playoffs. At this point of his career, Humphries is clearly a limited player but he fills a nice role for the Wizards and could help Marcin Gortat on the boards. He may not reach his double-double production that he had in his heyday with the Nets, but he could be an important piece of the Wizards' puzzle, and he's apparently been working on his three-point shot.
Heading into his 11th NBA season, Kris Humphries is set to play for his sixth different team after reaching a three-year, $13 million agreement with the Washington Wizards during the offseason. He averaged 8.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist, 0.4 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 20 minutes per game for the Boston Celtics last season, starting 30 of the 69 games he played in. Long known as an excellent rebounder, the 29-year-old power forward remains offensively limited, but he does chip in with some blocks. He's also improved his shooting percentages over the last few years, even finishing last season at 50 percent from the field and 81 percent from the line, compared to career-long marks of 47 percent and 69 percent, respectively. While his improved foul shooting has been a consistent trend over the last few years, Humphries made just 45 percent of his field-goal attempts in 2012-13, as his production from the field has been a bit less predictable. Humphries will likely have trouble reaching the 20-minute threshold when the Wizards are healthy, but he finds himself working behind an injury-prone starter (Nene) at power forward. Even if he's only playing about 15 minutes to open the year, Humphries could very well end up topping last season's 20 mpg.
The Celtics roster doesn't have a true center. Humphries, who was forced to play some center on some bad Nets teams when Brook Lopez was hurt, might start by default. The good news is Humphries is still somewhat young (28), is in a contract year, and has twice averaged double-double numbers when starting. His numbers declined drastically last year in Brooklyn when he was beat out by the not-so-awesome Reggie Evans and had back problems.
After two consecutive seasons of averaging a double-double, we’re sold on Humphries as a contributor in the right situation. Playing for an improving Nets team, Humphries followed up his breakout 2010-11 season by averaging 13.8 points and 11.0 rebounds--up from the 10.0/10.4 he posted the season before. Getting to run with one of the game’s premier point guards certainly helps, and Humphries will be doing that for another couple seasons at least. He was signed to a two-year deal in July and will return as Brooklyn’s starting power forward. Had the Nets been able to succeed with their plan to acquire Dwight Howard, we’d be much less bullish on Humphries. But Howard will not be in Brooklyn this season, so Humphries should once again be the primary rebounder in their frontcourt. Scoring at the same level might be hard to repeat with Joe Johnson joining the team via trade this offseason. The league seems to have respected Humphries’ game a little more last season. His 53-percent field-goal accuracy from 2010-11 dropped to 48 percent in 2011-12. Hump shot just 45 percent after the All-Star break.
Humphries showed flashes of being a useful fantasy player down the stretch during the 2009-10 campaign, but few expected him to take the leap he did in 2010-11. Playing for the hapless Nets, Humphries was expected to take a back seat to Troy Murphy and rookie Derrick Favors at power forward, but instead he ended up logging the majority of minutes at the position. His finished the season with averages of 10.0 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks while shooting 52.7 percent from the floor in 28 minutes per game. His role increased as the season wore on, however, resulting in averages of 14.1 points, 14.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 17 games after the All-Star break. Despite the strong finish, Humphries’ future outlook remains somewhat unclear, as he’ll be an unrestricted free agent once the NBA’s labor situation is settled. In the right situation, Humphries has the ability to be a consistent double-double threat, but he’ll need to find a team willing to offer him significant playing time. Monitor his situation closely before committing to him on draft day.
Humphries emerged from obscurity to become a solid contributor for the lowly Nets during the second half of 2009. He averaged nearly 7.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 19 minutes per game post All-Star break, making him serviceable, but not much else. He now finds himself buried on the PF depth chart, and will have a hard time cracking the lineup.
Humphries missed a large portion of last season with a fractured fibula in his leg and was included in the four-team trade that brought Shawn Marion to Dallas. He remains an end of the rotation player on a crowded Dallas roster.
Humphries had a marginally better statistical season in '07-'08, but is still nothing more than a banger off the bench.
Acquired from the Jazz for Rafael Araujo in a swap of big-bodied disappointments, Humphries actually showed some improvement last season. Over the Raptors’ final 13 games, with both Garbajosa and Bargnani sidelined, Humphries averaged 22.3 minutes, 6.6 points and 7.2 rebounds a game. He won’t get that kind of playing time out of the gate barring more injuries, but Toronto needs rebounders and Humphries could end up stealing minutes away from Nesterovic at center.
Humphries got swapped for fellow first-round bust Rafael Araujo in the offseason. He’s buried on the depth chart but his athletic ability could be a nice fit for the Raptors’ uptempo offense, and if a spot in the regular rotation opens up for him he could surprise.
The 20-year-old big man showed some signs of life toward the end of his rookie season, putting up 8.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 22 minutes per game for the month of April, doubling his averages for the previous five months of the season. He's got a big body (6-9, 235) and positions himself well for rebounds. Humphries will provide useful minutes for the Jazz backing up Carlos Boozer at power forward, and he'll start for an NBA team by 2008 or so, but he won't help your fantasy team this year even if Boozer were to go down, as the Jazz would likely shift Kirilenko to the four and start Matt Harpring at small forward.
Humphries has a nice blend of athleticism, strength in the paint, quickness, and a soft touch from the perimeter. He's an above-average rebounder and a good defender. Scouts fear his height is a little exaggerated, being closer to 6-7 than 6-9. If so, his size would be a question, given his projections to be a power forward in the NBA. Humphries is projected to be picked in the mid first round.
