Michael Beasley has had an interesting and let’s be frank, highly disappointing NBA career for a player who was taken No.2 in the 2008 NBA Draft.
After underwhelming in Miami, briefly shining in Minnesota (albeit with some inefficiencies), playing awful in Phoenix and a return trip to Miami and finding his way in China, Beasley has returned and showed off some of the offensive skill that made him highly touted in stops with the Rockets and Bucks.
He signed a one-year deal with the Knicks this off-season (feels dangerous) and seems fully committed to proving that he is a very good NBA player, shedding 20 pounds this off-season by changing his diet and acknowledging his defensive deficiencies (seriously).
That was all good and well until he said this:
“If you watch my game, really watch my game, my jab series, all that, I’m literally just Carmelo on the left side of the floor.”
While their is nothing wrong with trying to model your game after one of the best scorers in the NBA (mostly), saying you are the equivalent of a potential future hall of famer when you can’t stick with an NBA team is a little inaccurate.
Here is Beasley’s defending himself and asking for a fair opportunity to gets minutes in the NBA:
“I’ve came in and out of this league. Every year my per-36 [minute average] has been top of the league. And still everybody looks at me as a bust. I just want an opportunity to play more than 15 minutes. And you know if I play more than 15 minutes I’m going to score more than 15 points. And if I can do that for 82 games, that’s an All-Star level. I don’t know. I’m just talking. I just want an opportunity to play basketball. I just want the respect I deserve. Not for what I can do in the future but what I’ve done in the past. And I just want a fair opportunity, a fair chance, a fair shot to play basketball.”
Beasley has shown the ability to score in bunches, but the fact of the matter is that he has a terrible shot selection, opting for long two-point shots which are taboo in the current NBA that is built around analytics and high percentage shots and efficiency and Beasley’s laziness on the defensive end coupled with his shot selection make him hard to play for more than 20 minutes a night.
He has never been an All-Star caliber player or even close when he was receiving plenty of opportunity or minutes and has only rated with a positive Value Over Replacement Player rating once in his career, while registering a negative offensive and defensive box plus/minus score every season of his NBA career.
Beasley determination is a good sign, but his slight delusion of what makes an efficient and valuable NBA player in 2017 will probably prevent him from ever being one.
