Beck on Kris Humphries and the mis-application of funds

It's not an overstatement to say the Nets overspent last summer. After all, the $340 million doled out in contract commitments, cash for draft picks and a buyout is the second highest off-season total ever, behind the $402 million spent by the Miami Heat in the summer of 2010. And they wound with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Few outside some capologists questioned it. The Nets have an owner who just the other day made a profit of more than $41 million on his investments ... which is not a particularly extraordinary day for someone worth between $15 and $20 billion and who owns gold mines. The Nets were also moving into a new arena in a new city and over the last two years, their value has nearly tripled and could nearly double again in five years. It's only money.

Now, writes Howard Beck, the Nets are faced with some "buyer's remorse" on at least one contract, that of Kris Humphries. In a realistic, if somewhat brutal, assessment of Hump's skills, Beck writes that the Nets were never "particularly enamored" of Humphries, who he refers to as a "reality TV foil." But they saw him as needed insurance and agreed to pay him $24 million over two years rather than three "making him vastly overpaid but less of a long-term burden."

Now, they hope that plan will pan out and they'll be able to deal him, along with perhaps MarShon Brooks and draft picks "as a sweetener." Bottom line for Beck: "The Nets will almost certainly have to accept bigger, longer contracts in return. But spending is one skill they do not lack."

• Kris Humphries’ New Reality With Nets - Howard Beck - New York Times