Humphries joins DJ in Sixers' frontcourt to savour

The Adelaide 36ers could well have found the frontcourt partner for Daniel Johnson that has been on the agenda for years with the arrival of the NBA-experienced Isaac Humphries ahead of the 2021 NBL season. 

When Humphries last played in the NBL it was back in the 2017/18 season when the promising Sydney local returned home from college at the University of Kentucky and further refined his game with the Kings.

He averaged 6.9 points and 3.7 rebounds a game and took out the Rookie of the Year award, but the Humphries of 2018 compared to the one now gearing up to play for the Sixers in 2021 is scarcely recognisable.

The rookie Humphries was very much an inside presence who had some good moves around the basket, was a solid defender and good rebounder, but three years on and his all-round game has come on in leaps and bounds.

It's easy to see why when you factor in that he spent a season in Serbia playing with FMP Beograd and then went back to the United States to play in the G-League at the Erie BayHawks.

After a solid season there, just as he was about to return home to Sydney he got the call up to join the Atlanta Hawks to finish out the 2018/19 NBA season. He made five appearances and showed good signs in limited minutes with 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds a game.

Injury then curtailed Humphries' 2019/20 season and then with COVID-19 taking over the world, he's been back in Australia since and been in Adelaide in recent months getting ready for his return NBL season.

The Humphries version of 2021 is now a player still with that inside game he had back in 2018 although it has been refined and improved, but the massive growth has been in the shooting touch of the almost seven-footer.

He is now a genuine perimeter threat and the partnership he is going to provide the 36ers alongside Daniel Johnson should already have those following Adelaide excited for what they can provide during #NBL21.

There are plenty of other new faces at the Sixers this season with Humphries joined by Keanu Pinder, Josh Giddey, Sunday Dech and imports Donald Sloan and Tony Crocker as arrivals.

That group has already bonded well with returning players Johnson, Brendan Teys, Jack McVeigh, Daniel Dillon and Alex Mudronja, and Humphries is enjoying the connection they've already created.

"We have gelled as a group super quickly and we all kind of knew each other before from various things, and there was one degree of separation between a lot of us," Humphries told Adam Gibson on Gibbo Goes One on One.

"We've gelled really quick and we've been practicing a ton for a really long time as well. We had no choice but to come together and do everything together really, but that's what it's like. 

"Every new team you're on you get 10 to 15 new best friends and you learn to love each other, and live with each other and do everything together. This team specifically we sort of do everything together on the court and then off the court as well. We are very united and it's awesome."

It feels like a lifetime ago now, but the Sixers did get a break up to the remarkably long off-season training with a pair of pre-season games last month against the Brisbane Bullets.

They now get to play another two in the lead up to the season now on January 7 and 9 against the Cairns Taipans, and Humphries is certainly enjoying the chance to get out on the floor with his new teammates.

"We really enjoyed getting to play those two games. Having a different opponent that wasn’t us for the first time in months was awesome, and for some of us it was the first time we'd played real games for a long time," he said.

"We loved that hit out and it was important to figure out how we are, how we'll be as a team and putting the pieces together. 

"It was a good first indication of how it will all go and I think we did a pretty good job as a team, and with everything that went into the weekend with the COVID protocols. It was a great weekend but it already feels like a long time ago."

When Humphries did arrive in Adelaide he had to do the now usual two weeks of quarantine, but he actually enjoyed that chance to freshen up and get ready to hit the training court hard afterwards.

"Adelaide was pretty good at that point so they were letting us quarantine in our apartments, not in hotels so I was just at home for that time," Humphries said.

"I live at Henley Beach pretty much on the beach so I was laughing. It was actually a nice couple of weeks after I had been working out lots in the off-season or whatever we call that whole period. 

"I was working out a ton in Sydney so the two weeks was welcome to be honest, it gave me a little break and I got straight back into it as soon as I finished."

Humphries and some of his new teammates have spent plenty of time exploring South Australia as much as they can in recent months too, and he couldn’t like what he's seen any more.

"I've actually seen a lot already. I've been down to Marion Bay which is down on the peninsula, I went down to Port Noarlunga a few weeks ago, I've been to the wineries and have seen all the beaches up and down the coast," he said. 

"This group is really connected so we all like to do things together and we all want to explore and do that sort of thing all the time. I've surprisingly seen a lot of SA and Adelaide, and it's very underrated. 

"It's beautiful here and people don’t realise how nice it is here so I'll definitely keep this location in the memory for a long time."

As he prepares to embark on his career in Adelaide, Humphries is now a player with NBA experience and has had the chance to begin living out of his dream on the biggest of stages.

The debut for the Hawks against Patty Mills, LaMarcus Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs is something he'll treasure forever and you can certainly understand why.

"It's that call that you wait for forever and then when it actually happens you kind of blackout honestly. I didn’t expect it and I was on my way to the airport to fly home to Australia," Humphries said.

"I had just played a whole season and you go through the weird emotions of packing up your whole apartment and leaving another team forever. It's that weird time of the last day but then my agent called and I got the call up.

"I was still going to the airport but I flew to Atlanta instead of going back home. It was crazy. Then arriving there and putting on my jersey, and walking out for the first time was really cool. We were playing the Spurs too so Patty was there and I got to guard LaMarcus Aldridge. 

"He's someone I've looked up to for a long time and have watched his game for ages so to be able to play him was really cool. I scored my first bucket and that sort of thing sticks with you forever."

While Humphries is fully committed to throwing everything into coming up big for the 36ers and helping them win in the NBL, longer term he has his eyes firmly set on a full-time NBL return should he continue to develop and grow.

"I think I've done my time in the G-League. I think two years was kind of our cut off and I wanted to do two years and see how I'd go," Humphries said. 

"Unfortunately I got injured in my second year so was pretty much out the entire season and didn’t get a chance to really do anything, and then Corona happened so I couldn’t get any call ups afterwards. 

"I've done my time there now and it was very valuable, and we all learn a lot from the G-League. My mindset is to keep working and keep getting better to a point where I have a solid spot on a roster. That's the goal."