PLAYER PROFILE

Kris Humphries

POWER FORWARD

Height: 6’9”
Weight: 235
Birthday: February 6, 1985
Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
Years Pro: 8
Twitter: @KrisHumphries

How He Got Here: The Nets traded for Humphries on January 11, 2010, acquiring him and forward Shawne Williams for Eduardo Najera.

Contract: Humphries signed a two-year deal worth $24 million on July 11th, 2012. He signed the contract before the end of the Dwightmare, and the Nets gave him just two years to give them added flexibility should they later want to include him in a trade. The contract pays a flat $12 million in each year.

Backstory

Ever heard of this guy?

Humphries may be the only player whose spotlight got smaller during the Newark-to-Brooklyn move. Despite playing a solidly unspectacular garbage-man role in the NBA, Humphries is one of the most well-known -- and well-reviled -- players in the NBA, due to his infamous 72-day marriage with billionaire socialite and human sock puppet Kim Kardashian. Humphries had a life long before then -- he was a decorated athlete in Minnesota, then at the University of Minnesota, before enjoying an unspectacular but solid career bouncing around the NBA -- but in the minds of many, Kris Humphries didn't hit the "scene" until he met Ms. Kardashian in October of 2010.

What followed is a story fit for reality TV: a dream wedding (televised), a rocky marriage (televised), a divorce filing (widely publicized), and a legal battle (still ongoing). Humphries requested an annulment from the marriage on grounds of fraud, likely because the Kardashians created a sham marriage to promote them and their TV show. Humphries normally refuses to talk about it.

None of this deterred The Incredible Hump, though; while boos rained down league-wide, fanbases chastising him for his 72-day foray into KardashianLand, Humphries had his best season, earning a contract paying him $12 million annually. Now he's set to start on a playoff-bound team for the first time in his career. Lucky Jay ain't drop him from the team.

Strengths

“The Incredible Hump” is a rebounding machine, plain and simple. His total rebound percentage of 20.1% ranks third in the league among players with at least 3,000 minutes in the past two seasons, behind only Dwight Howard and Kevin Love. Humphries runs the floor, can finish at the rim, swats about a shot per game, and has a nice little midrange jumper from the left elbow. Humphries took on far too much offense last season, by necessity -- per Synergy, he finished off about 14 plays per game last season -- and a significant scale-back means the team will give him better chances to score off quick cuts to the basket and fewer opportunities on Iso Island.

Weaknesses

The downside to garbagemen is that after they clean up the trash, there's not much left for them. Humphries is not a supremely talented offensive player, ranking in the bottom half of the NBA scoring off cuts, as a big man in the pick-and-roll, off offensive rebounds, in spot-up situations, and in isolation. Similarly, Humphries doesn't wow on the defensive end -- he's often a step slow on rotations and gets burned by guards in pick-and-rolls.

Three revealing numbers

1) 19.8%. Humphries’ total rebounding percentage of 19.8% with the Nets ranks him second all-time in team history, behind only Jayson Williams. His defensive rebounding rate of 28.1% is the highest in team history by a comfortable margin.

2) 58. Humphries has 58 double-doubles over the past two seasons, the second-most of all players currently in the Eastern Conference. (Deron Williams is third.)

3) 70. According to Synergy, Humphries posted up 84 times on the right side of the floor last season, facing up 70 of those times. You don’t normally think of Humphries as a face-up post player, but it was one of his more successful moves.

High point

Low point

From the Coach

"Maybe because I don’t follow reality TV, I don’t know all the ins and outs of it but it’s pretty hilarious to me. I don’t know if they even know why they’re booing him. Keep booing him, we’ll take the 20 and 16.”

Better half: We're not sure who it is. But we know who it's not! (It's not Betty White.)

Fun fact: Humphries was the 2nd-highest rated 10-and-under boys swimmer in the United States before he gave up swimming to pursue basketball. First? Michael Phelps.

Humphries still owns the 10-and-under world record in the 50M and 100M freestyle.

Off the court: You don't often hear about the good things Humphries does off the court, so let's share this one: 16-year-old cancer fighter Kaely Kwitek was Humphries’ guest of honor at an April 2012 game against the Philadelphia 76ers. It was Kwitek's wish to meet Humphries, and Humphries paid for her expenses, gave her a courtside seat to the game, and met with her after the game ended.