Michael Beasley: The Man, the Myth, the Bust (?), Coming Soon to a Trade Rumor Near You
NBA July 1st. 2009, 2:45pm
Intern Michael Schwartz, is a USC student and a writer for the school’s paper, the Daily Trojan.
When the Miami Heat begrudgingly drafted Michael Beasley, did anyone think “this is going to turn out well?”
Beasley experienced an expected amount of hiccups during his rookie year, given that he was playing in a system that was ill-fitted for skill set and had to deal with the no-nonsense Pat Riley and a rookie coach. If there’s one word you’d use to characterize Beasley, it might be nonsensical. [Ed. Also, chill.]
Things seemed to click late in the year for Beasley (averaged 20.6 ppg and 8.6 rpg in his last eight regular season games), but his rookie season was largely viewed as a disappointment. Bill Simmons even went so far as to call him “a colossal disappoint and semi-fraud.€ Little bit early to be giving up on a 20-year-old, eh Sports Guy?
The offseason has been just as hard for B-Eazy. Most recently, he was left off the list of invitees to USA Basketball’s Olympic training camp. Fellow draft classmates Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Kevin Love, D.J. Augustin and Jerryd Bayless all received invites. Bayless couldn’t get off the bench in the first or last month of the season in Portland; he only got on the court for garbage time in the first round of the playoffs.
An earlier rumor that the Grizzlies turned down the Heat’s offer of Beasley for the No. 2 pick would have been the low point for Beasley because 1) It would have meant that the Heat thought the former No. 2 pick was only worth the second pick in an admittedly weak draft and 2) the Grizzlies didn’t think he was worth that much and passed. But the Heat have refuted that rumor, saying they were the ones approached with the offer and turned it down, so all is right in the world of NBA rumors.
But a change of scenery might be best for Beasley, and it got me thinking where he would fit in best.
Whenever the Bosh-to-Miami rumors are brought up, he’s frequently mentioned as a core piece of the package going back to Toronto. It would certainly be interesting to see him running with Jose Calderon, but there’s no telling if this is a trade that will simply have to exist on fans’ editions of NBA 2k9.
Tim Kawakami said he heard the Warriors might look into Beasley as a target if the Amare deal falls through, but it seems like any talks are in their infancy at this point. It would be great to see Beasley playing in that system, but wouldn’t that require the Warriors to move Anthony Randolph, which would be a dealbreaker? Beasley and Randolph couldn’t play together, lest the two of them and the Warriors’ tiny backcourt wanted to get shredded by wings.
But hey, it’s the Warriors, so maybe defense isn’t really a concern.
25 Responses to “Michael Beasley: The Man, the Myth, the Bust (?), Coming Soon to a Trade Rumor Near You”
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July 1st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
i will admit that last year i was one of the morons who thought the bulls should have picked beasly over rose. now? im really happy they picked rose.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:54 pm
The Lantern is a better student newspaper.
/not really
July 1st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
and btw two really well written posts in a row(not counting the riveting larry bird coach golf course one liner)…its like im dreaming or some shit
July 1st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I made that trade on NBA 2K9. True story.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Wow. One year of struggles and he’s a bust?
A bit quick if you ask me.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:04 pm
from the link…
There were many nights where I would come back from work and he would be doing his homework just five feet from the television with and empty container of 30 wings. The best part was the he sometimes would be wearing 3-d sunglasses watching Sponge Bob Square Pants.
and what is it that drives Riley crazy and didn’t want to draft him???
July 1st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
way too early to call him a bust.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Beasley seems like one of those players that are just happy to be in the pros. He’s in it more for the lifestyle than for the competition.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
someone has to get a pic of leyton hewitt’s wife or girlfriend up stat!
smokeshow!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Wow. One year of struggles and he’s a bust?
A bit quick if you ask me.
@BFF: I live down here. I heard he (and also Chalmers, to a lesser extent) set the world rookie record for fines for stupid stuff (meetings, practices, dress, you name it). This is as much about “off the court” as on
July 1st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
This is as much about “off the court†as on
I agree with my fellow Bills fan. He has to attend Orientation Week again because he is a dumb ass
July 1st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
jpq lets leave Mario out of this.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Rookie numbers. Per 36 minutes.
Durant: 21.1, 51.9% TS%, 4.5 rebs, 2.5 assists, 3.0 turnovers.
Beasley: 20.1, 52.8% TS%, 7.9 rebs, 1.5 assist, 2.2 turnover.
To be fair, neither of those lines are very valuable, though Beasley was a decent enough rebounder.
Give this kid a fucking break.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Agree. Kid has the body and the talent to be a solid NBA player. Just needs to pull it together and focus.
/broken record
July 1st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
The Heat dangled Chalmers to the Grizzlies for the 27th pick in the shittiest draft evar. They must think pretty highly of him.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:21 pm
@BFF: I live down here. I heard he (and also Chalmers, to a lesser extent) set the world rookie record for fines for stupid stuff (meetings, practices, dress, you name it). This is as much about “off the court†as on
But are you surprised? A 20-21 year old kid, in Miami, with millions of dollars burning a hole in his pocket is NOT going to get into troubles and act…well, like a kid?
I don’t condone it. And if there is a leadership structure within the locker room, he better have paid attention to it.
He’s still only 1-year into his professional career. Unless he’s become a true team cancer, I wouldn’t part with him just yet. Not unless I got a mad offer from some other team.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
By the media, but not the Heat
July 1st, 2009 at 3:28 pm
fetch just telling you what I read the other day, and numerous times before. They run together a little too much
from an article announcing Zo’s new job w/ Heat…
Mourning’s new role comes at a time when the Heat is trying to get second-year forward Michael Beasley to take a more focused professional approach away from the court. Beasley and 2008 second-round pick Mario Chalmers received numerous fines last season for non-basketball issues.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Saw that. He’s now drowning his sorrows in her rack.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4300407
Rudy is not a fan of MJOT
July 1st, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Yeah Mario probably won’t ever be a good NBA player, but he hit the biggest shot I’ll ever see in my life, so he gets a lifetime pass from me.
I might have to be a Blazers fan cause of Pritch.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:45 pm
They begrudgingly took him? If I remember correctly everyone thought that he was going to be a great player at the time.
Can we give him a year before we bring up the “bust” tag, please?
July 1st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Rudy also has his panties in a bunch about the Blazers trading away his Spaniard buddy, Sergio Rodriguez. Hopefully he comes around and accepts his role. He is a great weapon coming off the bench to give Roy or Batum a break but I don’t think he’s ready physically to be a starting SF.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:12 pm
As a Heat fan, I like nothing about this guy. He doesn’t help the team win one bit. On the occasional night his shot will be falling and he will put in 20+ shooting over 50%, but he is typically just an offensive possession killer. Kenny Smith has a term for it, but I can’t recall it. Basically when he gets the ball, the shot is going up 9 times out of 10. He completely disrupts the flow of the offense, doesn’t play defense, and continuously settles for bad jump shots. Don’t like him. He’s clearly a talented offensive player, but he is very very undersized, and I don’t see his ceiling being all that high.
July 1st, 2009 at 6:11 pm
They begrudgingly took him?
@GSG: Yeah, they did. Riley wanted OJ Mayo so bad he could taste him, but deferred to Randy Pfund, because he was right on D-Wade when Riley wanted Bosh.
Once Riley found out what a nutjob Beasley was, Pfund got SVG’d and vanished from the Heat landscape, never to be seen again.