I am not going to sit here and tell you that Michael Beasley is going to get thrown to the ground by Draymond Green at the end of a one-point game and not get the call again in the playoffs this year. He is not going to lead the Bucks to the Finals, or something. I am not even going to call this story “The Bea's Knees.” You know?
But this guy can play a little bit. Herewith, we get acquainted.
He is coming off his best season
At age 27, Beasley should be right in the thick of his prime. And weirdly enough (this is Michael Beasley, after all), he is. At least last season in Houston, he played like it (the season before, he earned MVP honors … in China).
Offense is his game, and few players scored like Beasley last season. On a per-minute basis, just five players in the NBA scored more – Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins, James Harden and LeBron James. Granted, he played just 20 regular season games, and only played 18.2 minutes per game. So the sample size was small, but not so small to be discounted. Plus, it is not as though he does not have a pedigree to do such a thing as score the dang basketball.
Ah, but what about efficiency, you say? Beasley made more than half of his shots from the field, rarely attempted threes (yes, he loves to shoot, but refrained from gunning threes), and got the line more than ever. Beasley's TS% was a tick better than that of Gordon Hayward (and Greg Monroe and Khris Middleton). His PER of 22.5 was better than anyone on the Bucks. Do that for a full season (something we have never quite seen yet from Beasley), and it puts you among the top-25 in the league in that stat. In the playoffs against the Warriors, he posted the second-best PER on the team (15.9), behind only James Harden. PER is not everything. But it is something.
He may or may not have upside, and that is okay
The upside is probably along the lines of what he showed in Houston last season. After 453 up-and-down-and-back-up games in the league, Beasley is not about to transform into the best player on a team, but there is value in scoring at an elite level, something Beasley may just have in him.
Speaking of elite skills (or not), people will lament losing Tyler Ennis, and that is fine. He is 21. Every point guard who makes it to the league makes sparks at times, and so it is easy to get tantalized watching them – but Ennis hardly separated himself from erstwhile Bucks point guards like Ish Smith or Kendall Marshall or Nate Wolters … or for that matter, current point guards like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Matthew Dellavedova or Michael Carter-Williams. In any event, Gar Forman was not dialing up John Hammond to give up Jimmy Butler for him.
Last year was the best Beasley has played since his rookie year way back in 2008 – back when he was All-Rookie First Team. This does not need to be a reclamation project though. If he can be what he was six months ago – a sixth or seventh man out there outscoring his opponent – that will be a big help. And if not, that is probably not such a problem in the long run.
He is a high-volume offensive player who can give the team offense and minutes
It will be an even greater help because of the very-unfortunate injury to Middleton, a guy who carried the offense (and a lot of other things) for significant stretches of last season. Beasley is no Middleton – he is not the creator, outside shooter, defender and many other things that Middleton is – and he is not a direct replacement in any way, not even by virtue of position. But he can give the team some minutes at small forward (Middleton is more of a 2/3 while Beasley is more of a 3/4, but there is overlap) and is willing and able to help ease the scoring burden – he put up 25 points on 20 shots per 36 minutes last season.
Over at BrewHoop, the guys have podcasted and written this summer about the odd dilemma of the small forward position, where perhaps both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker were originally slotted, and where Middleton was perhaps penciled in to start (at least on paper, though Middleton is more of a natural shooting guard). But when Middleton went down, that spot suddenly looked precariously thin. If the Giannis point guard project is real, there is no sense in panicking and pushing him away from that (and back to small forward on offense) in such a pivotal season, and likewise with Jabari at power forward. If Beasley helps those guys do what they need to do, and helps let them stay on their path to grow into what they need to grow into, that will be enough. If he plays like he did last season, that will be more.
