As a Beasley fan, it's been tough watching the ups-and-downs in his career. And at the time of this post, right after having a respectable start good enough to get his contract this year guaranteed - it's been tough lately. His past 6-ish games have been disappointing. It's gotten to the point where when he's not scoring, he's basically useless out there. And since the Raptors game where he scored 17, he's struggled on both sides - and he's not getting playing time cuz of that D. Which is a shame because if you remember the Hawks game in December, Spo put him in a crucial defensive possession. That was promising but he still looks lost out there sadly right now.
We all love to see him succeed and be on the floor out there for experience helpful for his development, but he has to bring it. I'm honestly still puzzled how a player with his physical tools struggle this much on D and the rotations of the Heat defensive scheme. Effort is not even questionable IMO, it's just that he simply can't play instinctive defense and if you can't play that, then no minutes for you. It's not even lack of trying like his first stint. Compare his D now back then and it's not even close, but it still needs work. He won't be getting any consistent minutes long enough to stay on the floor without it. And like I said in the Bobcats GT, I've accepted at this point that unless he's in one of those games where he's in B-Easy mode making scoring look easy enough to cover and make up for his defense, he won't be sniffing playing time.
What can he do to improve on it? Is there still hope for Beasley on defense? Is Spo handling this well? Or does he need to cut in to Rashard/Haslem's minutes in favor of the younger legs of Beas?
