You can be an incredibly gifted scorer in the NBA, but these days, that skill alone won’t necessarily cut it for most teams. You have to understand the concept of team play on both ends of the court. Without it, you might not be good enough to stick around in the league, and that is especially true if you come with baggage.
At this point in his career, Michael Beasley is that guy – a pretty good scorer that doesn’t defend and causes off-court issues. For his inability to generate positive results both on and off the court, the forward was released by the Phoenix Suns earlier in the summer. How did he get to this point from what was supposed to be such a promising career? Mark Deeks of SBNation shared his opinion on the matter:
Michael Beasley has taken extremely little care in cultivating his image of a wasted talent. The oft-documented off-court distractions that started from before he even took the court in his rookie season need no further documenting. It is known. Indeed, his career seppuku is close to being all that is known about him.
This is the path he chose. It is now the default Beasley story. “Off-court issues.” “Distraction.” “Immature.” “Bust.” And other pejoratives of the sort. This is the default story because he himself has rather made it be so. There have been no on-court positives to offset it all, so there’s nothing else for the storytellers to tell.
Now that Beasley has been dropped by his third team in five years, it is increasingly difficult for there to ever be. Each time he is cast aside by a team, the returns it gets for him decrease each time. Miami got two second-round picks for trading him in 2010. Minnesota got nothing at all for letting him go in 2012. Phoenix volunteered to pick up a $9 million tab just to cast him aside two weeks ago. That, in itself, is a testament to the tumult of his career.
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While someone should sign him for cheap simply because of his talent level, they must know quite what that talent level is. It isn’t one of a star, nor especially close to it.
And apparently, the Miami Heat knows what that talent level is, from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
The two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat reached agreement with troubled free agent Michael Beasley on a training camp contract, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Beasley has to make the roster to earn his one-year, minimum contract deal of $1 million.
Several of the Heat’s key veteran players were supportive of the signing, and Beasley had a strong interest in returning to the franchise responsible for drafting him with the second overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft.
The Phoenix Suns reached a buyout agreement with Beasley on the remaining two years of his contract last week. Beasley, 24, was charged for marijuana possession in an August arrest, adding to his considerable history of legal issues surrounding pot.
If you’re Beasley, joining a championship team is the perfect way to cure your issues. First and foremost, you immediately lose the “loser” tag. Secondly, a bad reputation can so easily change in the NBA when you play for a winning team – just ask Andray Blatche. Beasley plays the same position as LeBron James, so expectations will be minimal. If you ask me, the guy has hit jackpot.
Some may wonder why the Heat would take a chance on a troublemaker like Beasley, but what’s the worst that can happen? He doesn’t pan out for the team and ends up riding the bench? Big deal. There are too many strong characters in that lockerroom for him to be a distraction, so that’s not an issue either. Lets keep the situation in perspective: At the price that the Suns were willing to pay for, he is a gamble that no one should take. At the price that the Heat are paying for? He is a definite bargain.
Onto other news from around the league:
Marc Gasol is ready to play more of an uptempo style of basketball, from Mark Woods of ESPN: “Coach Joerger has been there for six years,” Gasol told ESPN.com on Wednesday. “He knows us pretty well. He knows how we play. He knows us personally, how we like to play basketball. He, of course, wants to push the tempo, which has been a problem for us, getting up and down the floor to score easy buckets. Because when you always go inside, everybody collapses on you in the paint and it’s hard to operate down there. “He’s going to push the tempo and have a lot of plays from his pocket that he’s told me [about]. And I’m excited about next season.” Although Joerger has been on the Grizzlies’ staff since Gasol began his NBA career in 2008, one of his immediate challenges will be to gain the respect of his players that Hollins held. Hollins, the Spanish star said, would expect the core group of returning Grizzlies to give his former assistant the same level of support.”
