Good read courtesy of Bill Simmons from ESPN who puts a little perspective on Beasley and his value right now.
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105. Michael Beasley
Hate to throw the "bust" word around after two years, so let's flip this around. You're watching the playoffs right now. Pretty competitive, right? Other than scoring, you need to rebound, defend and play hard to advance. Beasley can't do any of those three things. Play an undersized power forward against him (like Glen Davis in Game 2) and he gets eaten up. Stick a small forward on him (like Paul Pierce) and he can't post that guy up. Stick a traditional power forward on him (like Kevin Garnett) and he can't beat that guy off the dribble or prevent the guy from scoring on the low post. So what's left? I don't see any conceivable scenario in which this guy has a meaningful NBA career. Could he put up stats on a bad team? Of course. Anything else, I'm not seeing it. All of Pat Riley's fidgeting during the 2008 draft now makes perfect sense.
If Dwyane Wade ends up leaving this summer, it's because of two reasons:
A. The teams that ended up with O.J. Mayo (3) Russell Westbrook (4), Kevin Love (5), Danilo Gallinari (6), Eric Gordon (7), Brook Lopez (10), Jerryd Bayless (11), Robin Lopez (15), Serge Ibaka (24), Nic Batum (25) and George Hill (26) wouldn't trade those guys for Beasley right now. That's a borderline catastrophe. They got the 13th-best guy in the draft at No. 2.
B. Riley didn't sell his Beasley stock in time. The window was February, when a panicking Suns team happily would have green-lighted Beasley (making $19.4 million from 2011-2013), Udonis Haslem's expiring deal and a protected 2010 No. 1 for Amar'e Stoudemire. If you're Miami, why not? Amar'e gets a taste of Miami for a few months; you get the chance to offer him a sixth year and more money; worst-case scenario, you have his sign-and-trade rights this summer; you can make a 2010 playoffs run with the Wade-Amar'e combo; and you potentially have a 2010-11 nucleus of Wade, Amar'e and Free Agent Star X.
If you're Wade, would you stick around and put your basketball prime in the hands of someone who just botched those two decisions? Or would you flip teams and opt for a safer situation? More on this later.
Hate to throw the "bust" word around after two years, so let's flip this around. You're watching the playoffs right now. Pretty competitive, right? Other than scoring, you need to rebound, defend and play hard to advance. Beasley can't do any of those three things. Play an undersized power forward against him (like Glen Davis in Game 2) and he gets eaten up. Stick a small forward on him (like Paul Pierce) and he can't post that guy up. Stick a traditional power forward on him (like Kevin Garnett) and he can't beat that guy off the dribble or prevent the guy from scoring on the low post. So what's left? I don't see any conceivable scenario in which this guy has a meaningful NBA career. Could he put up stats on a bad team? Of course. Anything else, I'm not seeing it. All of Pat Riley's fidgeting during the 2008 draft now makes perfect sense.
If Dwyane Wade ends up leaving this summer, it's because of two reasons:
A. The teams that ended up with O.J. Mayo (3) Russell Westbrook (4), Kevin Love (5), Danilo Gallinari (6), Eric Gordon (7), Brook Lopez (10), Jerryd Bayless (11), Robin Lopez (15), Serge Ibaka (24), Nic Batum (25) and George Hill (26) wouldn't trade those guys for Beasley right now. That's a borderline catastrophe. They got the 13th-best guy in the draft at No. 2.
B. Riley didn't sell his Beasley stock in time. The window was February, when a panicking Suns team happily would have green-lighted Beasley (making $19.4 million from 2011-2013), Udonis Haslem's expiring deal and a protected 2010 No. 1 for Amar'e Stoudemire. If you're Miami, why not? Amar'e gets a taste of Miami for a few months; you get the chance to offer him a sixth year and more money; worst-case scenario, you have his sign-and-trade rights this summer; you can make a 2010 playoffs run with the Wade-Amar'e combo; and you potentially have a 2010-11 nucleus of Wade, Amar'e and Free Agent Star X.
If you're Wade, would you stick around and put your basketball prime in the hands of someone who just botched those two decisions? Or would you flip teams and opt for a safer situation? More on this later.
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