Humphries battling for time on the court

To quote CSSNE.com's A. Sherrod Blakely, the only thing worse than being being an NBA veteran on a bad team is being an NBA veteran on a bad team who doesn't play. If the preseason has been any indicator, this could be the direction that new Celtics forward Kris Humphries is headed.

In seven preseason games, Humphries averaged 6.9 points and 2.8 rebounds in an 16 minutes on the court. While posting decent numbers, Humphries finds himself low in the big man rotation behind Brandon Bass, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, and Vitor Faverani. While this is hardly set in stone as the regular season is yet to kick off, it is hard to say with any certainty what kind of role Humphries will play on Boston's rebooted roster.

Entering his 10th year in the NBA, the 6-foot-9 Humphries feels most at home at power forward, but has spent the majority of his minutes thus far this season at center. Despite playing out of position and competing for time on a roster full of unproven NBA talent, Humphries is not complaining, and is instead focused on doing what he can to help the team.

For now, Humphries isn't thinking about anything other than making sure he's ready to play whatever role he's asked to, when he gets his opportunity.

"It's challenging, but Brad (Stevens) is a good coach, this is a good team with good guys," Humphries said. "You just have to figure it out, do what you can do in practice and take advantage of your opportunities when they come."

Speculation is running wild and has been throughout the majority of the preseason as to what players will be wearing green jerseys beyond the 2014 trade deadline. With Boston just barely under the luxury tax this year, I would speculate that this team will look largely the same in April as it does in November. Hopefully before then, Humphries will have carved out a nice role for himself on the 2013-14 team. I would hope that would be the case for a $12M dollar man who is ready to contribute.

Follow Padraic O'Connor on Twitter @padraic_oconnor

Source: A. Sherrod Blakely; CSNNE.com

Photo Source: AP