New Jersey Nets Should Focus on Kris Humphries with No Nene

Another offseason where the New Jersey Nets, another strikeout.

After the 2010 offseason, where the Nets missed out on Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire, the team failed to pull off a series of moves that could have resulted in a significant improvement.

Among those moves include the Dwight Howard deal that fell through, which could still happen, and losing out on the Nene Hilario sweepstakes after the center returned home to the Denver Nuggets.

Hilario was one of the league's most desired free agents this offseason. As you can tell, it was a slow year. Still, Nene is a strong post presence on both sides of the ball, and the 14 points and nine rebounds he would have provided would have been a perfect for a Nets team that is looking for a player of his caliber.

Since Brook Lopez only averages six boards per as a center, the Nets could have truly used the services of a solid rebounder.

The only hope for a rebounding presence that remains in free agency just so happens to be their starting power forward, Kris Humphries. Despite averaging a double-double for the first time in his career and being only 26 years old, not many teams have inquired about Humphries' services and have elected to steer clear of the player who is being brought up more on TMZ than ESPN.

Humphries has been the talk of Hollywood over the past few months. His short-lived marriage to reality star Kim Kardashian was highly publicized after having it smeared all over the channel E! on the show Keeping up with the Kardashians. The two have been criticized for their farce of a marriage that took place, as it only resulted in a little over 70 days worth of enjoyment for the happy couple before it was broken off.

Of course, it wasn't broken off until the marriage that took place, resulting in $17 million for Kardashian and Humphries. That amount was worth more than all of the combined money that Kris has made in a career that started in 2004 as a 19-year-old with the Utah Jazz.

While we expected Humphries to receive a solid deal, it seems that teams are shying away from the prospect of signing him.

Lamar Odom can at least balance reality TV and the NBA, Humphries can't even stay out of the news. If you search his name on Google, you'll see that there's more news about him and Kardashian than his NBA career. The fact that he is still in the news a few weeks after the divorce is enough for organizations to reject the idea of signing the player following a breakout season.

However, there is still one team that wants him. Lopez said that he would like to have Humphries playing alongside of him in the front court once again. It's tough to blame him. He sure doesn't want to play physical and rebound, so he needs Humphries on the team to do the dirty work of playing aggressively down low.

Humphries had already played for three different teams before joining the Nets in the middle of the 2009-10 season. He might have just found a permanent residence in New Jersey after a solid year where he averaged 10 points on 53 percent shooting to go along with 10 boards per. It was by far the best season of his seven-year career, and it should result in a signing by the Nets.

It's not like the team has much of a choice. They don't have any sort of replacement on the current roster aside from rookie Jordan Williams and legendary bust Shelden Williams.

With Humphries receiving little to no offers from any team over the offseason, it would seem that he's fair game for the Nets to take since they need a strong presence to hold down the fort and offer some sort of resistance.

That player certainly isn't going to be Lopez, and with so few options left in free agency, the Nets will have no choice but to pick up Humphries as their starting power forward. It's extremely tough for New Jersey to convince future Deron Williams to stick around with a subpar supporting cast, but having Humphries around at least momentarily addresses the issue of rebounding on both sides of the court.

At this point, it's better to have a post presence than none at all, even if it is one that can't stay out of the tabloids. With no Nene Hilario on the market, it's only for the best that the Nets wise up and sign Humphries to a deal that should give him far less than what a Kardashian wedding is apparently worth.