castorius (78 posts)  11/4/2012 1:37 AM

Is it time to push the panic button on Kris Humphries?

His minutes were down during preseason, which was a telling sign.  But now that we got the first regular season game out of the way, he only got 23 minutes against the Raptors.  He's also being benched down the stretch when the game is crucial late in the 4th quarter.  It seems like Avery Johnson is leaning towards a more smaller lineup with Gerald Wallace at Power Forward and he seems to favor having Brooks Lopez out there because of his offensive skills.  I feel like Humphries is sort of in a little doghouse.  He'll get about 20-25 minutes a game, but I drafted him to be one of my main rebounding go-to-guys.  His projections had him at 10+ rebounds.  I don't think he'll get the minutes to achieve that.  I have no doubts in his ability to rebound at a per-minute rate.  However, unless Brooks Lopez gets injured, I can't see Humphries keeping his double digit rebounding streak alive for another season.  Should I pull the plug and trade him for a lesser talent?

castorius (78 posts)  11/4/2012 1:42 AM

Also, I'd like to add that Avery Johnson seems to love giving his bench big men good minutes as he likes Andray Blatche and Reggie Evans.  Also, Evans seems to be taking away a lot of Humphries potential rebounds (Evans had 13 rebounds on Saturday, vs. Humphries 5 rebounds).

I have little room for a guy with limited offensive skills and no other contributions besides rebounds if he's only going to get me 5-6 rebounds-per-game.

What do you guys think?

Try to swing a trade for the equally underachieving Michael Beasley?  Or maybe try to get Chris Kaman - and sell his owner on the idea that Kaman always gets hurt?  Or should I wait until Humphries has a good game for his stock to rise a little bit before trading him?  What if his stock plummets further as we realize that he in fact will not get heavy minutes this year?

# 22686 (64 posts)  11/4/2012 1:40 AM

One game is definitely too early to read too much into things.  I'd wait it out a few more games to definitely confirm if it's just a once off or a trend before getting to any rash decision to trade him

Example is Faried, he played two consecutive sub-20 min games, was dropped in some of my leagues, and beasted it today.

I laugh at panicked owners after a game or two into the season