Michael Beasley

[Ontario]

From a Basketball perspective it's not a dream pairing, the possibility of Beas coming to Oklahoma. Clealy we already have a situation where 2 of our best 3 players realistically play the same position and adding Beas to that logjam wouldn't make sense. We could continue to play Durant & Green at 3 & 4 respectively, (which does hurt us in defense against power front courts) and have Beasley come off the bench in support of both guys, or we could look at moving Green in the deal for Beas, (probably a step backwards, also I would not want to part with Green unless it is for a center that we simply cannot say no to).

However I do find the thought of Michael Beasley intriguing for a couple of reasons.

A) First and foremost he and Kevin Durant are very close friends, I think Oklahoma has a great group of young kids who not only are talented as all get out but play great with each other because they are having a good time. Beasley I think would fit into that incredibly well.

B) As an individual player his upside is through the roof.

C) He's in trouble again do to some maturity issues that have the Heat doubting their young star in the making and as such he may actually be attainable. Those same maturity issues are giving pause to the rest of the league but because of the personal relationship Beasley has with Durant I think Oklahoma would have an advantage over any other city in keeping him grounded and focused.

[Ontario]

PG - Westbrook
SG - Harden
SF - Durant
PF - Green
C - (None of the guys we have now I believe are the long term solution here)

6th man Beasley behind both Durant & Green
- Does Serge Ibaka have what it takes to develop into a Defensive 5? Or is he a 4 at best?

Tyson Chandler's foot better have him out of a minimum of 20 games this year!

[TAI8]

Beasley wouldn't be coming off the bench...

[wiff]

Beasley won't be playing in OKC.

There are reasons why Riley had Mayo and Bayless give an additional work out a couple days before the draft.

And the reasons are that Beasley is a knucklehead. He has large question marks around his character. Sure the kid has a high ceiling but personally I don't think the kid is disciplined or structured enough to reach his ceiling.

I see another Darius Miles/Derrick Coleman type of career for the kid. All the talent in the world no drive.

To busy making dumb decisions like this one.

Heat forward Michael Beasley has taken down his Twitter page for the second time in less than a month.

His latest account, GorillaBeas, was removed from the social networking site sometime overnight Saturday.

Shortly before his account disappeared, Beasley posted a picture of his new back tattoo. It caused a stir because two plastic bags appear on the floor in the background of the shot.

It's hard to make out exactly what is in the baggies, but many outlets are speculating that they contained marijuana.

Beasley made a few frustrated posts prior to taking down his page:

"Y do I feel like the whole world is against me!!!!!!! Back on my FTW!!!!! I can't win for losin!!!!!!!!!!"

"Feelin like it's not worth livin!!!!!!! I'm done"

"not feelin this at all!!!!!"

Ya dawg I'm feelin' ya! It's got to be hard being a 20 something millionaire who gets to play a game for a job.

I know the party's and all the ladies must be really over whelming. I'm sure the pressure of blowing your money on bad tattoos and toys must really weigh on your shoulders.


I can see Beasley has a boatload of talent but at this point in time in order to trade for Beasley chances are Green would be the piece involved to facilitate the trade.

Sure Green might no be the most ideal PF and he might not have quite the high ceiling Weedsley does but Green is all business. And I'd rather take my chances on Green reaching his ceiling than Beasley coming close to his.

I'm not saying that Green doesn't like to party but at least the kid isn't dumb enough to post a picture with weed in it on the internet.

[wiff]

Want to add this little bit too. looks like the kid is falling apart at the seams.

Here is the wiretap.

Michael Beasley checked into an unidentified Houston rehabilitation hospital over the weekend, multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Sources said the Heat encouraged Beasley to check into the facility to address possible substance and psychological issues. He is expected to spend time with former NBA player and coach John Lucas, who is renown for his success in working with troubled players.

When reached Monday morning, Miami Heat spokesman Tim Donovan declined comment. An NBA spokesman also declined comment.

Beasley’s admission comes after a handful of disturbing Twitter posts were attributed to him on Friday afternoon.

The kid is a mess. Honestly for his sake I hope he gets through whatever he needs to.

[slick_watts]

Mike Beasley's a serious upgrade in talent over Jeff Green. I think this whole business with that photo is taken way out of proportion, a large percentage of the NBA probably uses marijuana regularly. I know lots of professionals in every day life who do as well, it's not the stigma it used to be. At least it wasn't a couple of Glocks on the table.

He's young and doesn't have the best head on his shoulders but I don't think he's as bad as Derrick Coleman or Darius Miles, he showed consistent improvement all year in his rookie season.

Obvioulsy you can't trade for him when he's in rehab or whatever but I think he figures stuff out and gets past all this.

Edit: Whenever something like this happens to an NBA player I always think of Vin Baker. What a mess that guy was. Every offseason was supposed to be 'the year' he got back over the hump and became productive again, but it never happened. I've always been a fan of Beasley's skill set (though not relative to Kevin Durant, always thought KD was better), but thinking about the Vin Baker years makes me reconsider someone like Beasley.

[wiff]

Anytime a guy has a substance problem it's touchy.

I know people who are very successful who smoke pot whenever they have a quiet night at home. And they still manage to get things done.

Same with guys who drink a boatload. I call them functioning alcoholics. They go to work sober hit the bars after work or polish off a bottle when they get home, wake up and do it all over.

But on the other side of the page there are the guys who can't balance alcohol or pot in a productive way with the rest of their life. Some guys get caught up in the party.

It's easy to do.

What I find interesting is that how "Party Guy" as a young adult eventually turns into "Alcoholic Guy" around 30.

At least it looks like Weedsley is trying to get a handle on it by checking into rehab.

But you can't honestly say that "today" all things considered you would trade Green for Beasley straight across Slick?

[slick_watts]

Anytime a guy has a substance problem it's touchy.

I know people who are very successful who smoke pot whenever they have a quiet night at home. And they still manage to get things done.

Same with guys who drink a boatload. I call them functioning alcoholics. They go to work sober hit the bars after work or polish off a bottle when they get home, wake up and do it all over.

But on the other side of the page there are the guys who can't balance alcohol or pot in a productive way with the rest of their life. Some guys get caught up in the party.

It's easy to do.

What I find interesting is that how "Party Guy" as a young adult eventually turns into "Alcoholic Guy" around 30.

At least it looks like Weedsley is trying to get a handle on it by checking into rehab.

But you can't honestly say that "today" all things considered you would trade Green for Beasley straight across Slick?

I'd really consider it. Beasley was so efficient from the field last year and started to really come on strong toward the end, I think it's a risk that might be worth taking. I'd like to think that a childhood friend like Kevin Durant could be a good influence on him, as well as the drastically different home environment he'd be playing in.

I really don't think Miami would do that trade anyway, though, even given the current circumstances.

[wiff]

I'd really consider it. Beasley was so efficient from the field last year and started to really come on strong toward the end, I think it's a risk that might be worth taking. I'd like to think that a childhood friend like Kevin Durant could be a good influence on him, as well as the drastically different home environment he'd be playing in.

I really don't think Miami would do that trade anyway, though, even given the current circumstances.

That can go both ways, Beasley could be a bad influence on Durant as well. In that Durant mix I posted in the Durant commercial thread at the very end of the clip you see that one of his teammates is Beasley.

It pretty obvious that these guys are still close. It wouldn't surprise me at all to think that Durant puffs every now and then but do you really want a guy like Beasley around to possibly influence Durant to puff more frequently?

I don't care how much potential the kid has he is a knuckle head and I'd rather keep him at a distance.

[SportsFan215]

Because of today's acivities, the Heat might be more inclined to consider trades for Beasley. So I'll propose a similar deal to one I proposed a few weeks ago:

Clippers Get: Green/JO/Cook
Clippers Give: Kaman/Camby/Thornton/Collins

Jazz Get: Kaman
Jazz Give: Boozer

Heat Get: Boozer/Camby/Thornton/Collins
Heat Give: Beasley/JO/Cook

Thunder Get: Beasley
Thunder Give: Green

[slick_watts]

I'd really consider it. Beasley was so efficient from the field last year and started to really come on strong toward the end, I think it's a risk that might be worth taking. I'd like to think that a childhood friend like Kevin Durant could be a good influence on him, as well as the drastically different home environment he'd be playing in.

I really don't think Miami would do that trade anyway, though, even given the current circumstances.

That can go both ways, Beasley could be a bad influence on Durant as well. In that Durant mix I posted in the Durant commercial thread at the very end of the clip you see that one of his teammates is Beasley.

It pretty obvious that these guys are still close. It wouldn't surprise me at all to think that Durant puffs every now and then but do you really want a guy like Beasley around to possibly influence Durant to puff more frequently?

I don't care how much potential the kid has he is a knuckle head and I'd rather keep him at a distance.

I understand where you're coming from. I think Beasley's too talented, though. NBA players who fall on some hard times, especially younger ones, have a lot of resources available to get their lives back on track. I live in South Florida currently and saw a lot of Heat games on TV and Beasley is definitely more talented than Jeff Green by a fair margin. Enough to justify a trade like this, IMO.

[wizkid27]

slick, I think that the potential wide margin of talent that Beasley has over Green is probably significantly diluted by the lack of role he had in Miami last year. If the guy would've been the 1st or 2nd option on the team and put up 20 per game on crappy percentages, more people would agree with you, as little as I'd like to admit it, maybe even me.

However, I wouldn't trade Green for Beasley. I'll attribute one third of this to logic, one third to my personal favoritism of Green, and one third to the fact that I've thought Beasley was a huge thug since the day I 1st saw him in a K-state game.

Green is the guy that does everything right and doesn't get in enough credit (a lot of the attention he does get is negative due to things like the team around him or playing out of position). Beasley is a guy who, while definitely very talented, plays with is natural gifts and hasn't really ever shown me much beyond that.

[Ontario]

But you can't honestly say that "today" all things considered you would trade Green for Beasley straight across Slick?

I think the debate being would you rather have Green of Beasley is besides the point. The question shoudl be if you could land Beasley is it something you would want the team to look into? Personally I believe the Heat are a motivated seller here and the rest of the league tentative. Miami is clearing space to not only max Wade but land another max player with him, does Collison's contract expire this year? Along with cash and a future first round pick I think Miami would give it serious consideration.

This game focuses a lot on marketing today, the article reads that the Heat "encouraged" Michael to go to Rehab, I read it as the corporate side flat out told him to pack his bags he's going. If marijuana is all the guy is doing the real drug addicts are going to laugh him out of the place, to be honest as a potential future employer I would be more worried about possible Zack Grienke like issues with anxiety and depression, but those can be remedied as long people honestly have Beasleys best interest at heart and are willing to work with him.

[HomieOmey]

I think the debate being would you rather have Green of Beasley is besides the point. The question shoudl be if you could land Beasley is it something you would want the team to look into? Personally I believe the Heat are a motivated seller here and the rest of the league tentative. Miami is clearing space to not only max Wade but land another max player with him, does Collison's contract expire this year? Along with cash and a future first round pick I think Miami would give it serious consideration.

No, Collison is on contract next season. Regardless, Miami has little incentive to trade for expirings. If they really wanted to, they could drop everyone but Wade and Cook and then go after Bosh AND Amar'e if they're lucky. You don't need more than min deals to fill the roster when your starting five has Wade, Bosh, and Amar'e. If that has any chance to happen, Beasely for Green would definitely make A LOT of sense. Even if they think they can only net Bosh, trading Beasely for Green would make a lot of sense.

From the Thunder's perspective, if you can get Beasely without giving up Green this year (what the OP seems to suggest), you have to do it. Low risk, extremely high reward. Even if it costs one or both of the Thunders' lottery picks (top 2 protected), it could be very well worth it. Just a month ago people were arguing whether or not Beasely would go first in this last draft over Griffin. Even Beasely for Green is something the Thunder should think hard about.

That Tattoo is out there though

[Joel Embust]

Durant & Beasley would make a great duo for years to come.

[Hoops23]

Heat Get: Boozer/Camby/Thornton/Collins
Heat Give: Beasley/JO/Cook

Nope!


BTW, here's a news from the Sun-Sentinel about Beasley.

In two separate developments Friday, it was learned that Heat President Pat Riley has decided to forgo the free-agent market when it comes to his team's lack of depth at point guard, and it was confirmed that Beasley's current stay at a Houston inpatient rehab facility is the result of a compliance failure in the NBA's substance-abuse program

As for Beasley, a source familiar with the situation confirmed that a misstep by the 20-year-old forward while participating in an outpatient program resulted in more stringent guidelines being established.

The source said the lapse was not related to drug use but rather adherence to program rules. The current stay is not voluntary, but is the only avenue for a return to the court.

Under NBA policy, neither the league nor the Heat is allowed to comment on the substance-abuse program, including whether a player even is part of the program. It was learned earlier this week, however, that Beasley was entered into the program for an infraction during last year's NBA rookie symposium.

[wiff]

You got to love when a 20yr old rookie thinks he's above the rules.

Nothing like a kid who simply can't follow directions.

[Hoops23]

You got to love it when you have a Pat Riley on your team.

The soon Riley found out that Beasley was also in the room with Arthur/Chalmer caught with marijuana in their hotel last year, he told Beasley to tell NBA officials that he's also in the room. Thats a class act by Riley. I dont know if any other GM's will do that. If not becuase of Riley, we might not see this Beasley stories.

Beasley is not above the Miami Heat rules, so much so with the NBA and the law.

[WadeKnicks2010]

Beasley would get Durant, Westbrook, and Green on drugs and your team would become the early 2000s Jailblazers.

[Hoops23]

^^If Beasley will play with Durant, Westbrook and Green, then it means there is a trade between OKC and Miami. Then for which player? Harden? Come on! Miami already have a stable, experience, an all-star and competent player at SG.

I'm not here to convince OKC to trade for Beasley but to clarify some issues, after all this is a Beasley thread.