By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

First year head coach, Avery Johnson stepped in knowing he has a young and talented team. With an early pick they went ahead and drafted Derrick Favors. Most picks drafted that high step in right away and garner bulk minutes. Johnson hasn’t granted Favors high minutes and has put who he feels is deserved on any given night. Particularly he has sent do it all shooting guard Terrence Williams to the developmental league, after repeated tardy violations.

Probably his strangest move though is the way he has handled Troy Murphy. Murphy has said to be healthy for quite a while after starting the year banged up. Johnson has felt that Murphy isn’t ready and hasn’t provided much of an explanation other than that. With minutes to be offered up, the Nets have received more than what they’ve bargained for with power forward Kris Humphries. Humphries has been a monster for production grabbing a heavy amount of rebounds in short stints on the floor.

Thus far this season he is averaging around eight points and eight boards a game. Lately his rebounds have been rising to the double digit mark. New Jersey really doesn’t have too many big men that like to rebound. Center, Brook Lopez is comparable to Amare Stoudemire in the fact that he doesn’t grab as many rebounds as you would like. Dirty work is not something they teach at Stanford.

Troy Murphy has been getting a few minutes here and there this past week. Murphy has been a David Lee sorts in years past. Able to get double doubles on any given night and mix in the three ball as well. Big men that stay around the basket figures to be limited for New Jersey.

Scoop up Humphries as he’ll figure to still get around twenty to twenty five minutes a game this year. His versatility for a team lacking depth is too much for him to get buried on the bench.