Being Far from Easy with Beasley

Considering the Heat’s dismal record last year and D-league lineups, the fact that the team sits rather comfortably at .500 and as of today tied for the final playoff spot in the revamped Eastern Conference, should be cause for celebration right? Well it’s all a matter of perspective. While the start has been solid, there is a worrisome subplot developing involving Miami’s prized second pick, a certain Michael Beasley.


While no one on the Heat’s coaching staff doubts his blatant scoring ability and smooth jump shot, the focus has instead been on his defense, or lack thereof. After a solid start to the first few games, Beasley has seen his minutes decline to the point where he has had to watch the fourth quarters of close games from an unlikely vantage point, the end of the bench.


In the last two games, Beasley has played 16 and 12 minutes respectively. The golden child brought in to ease Dwyane Wade’s scoring burden has been playing Dorrel Wright minutes. This, to put it simply, is unacceptable.


From the small sample size of games played, Spoelstra has apparently seen enough of Beasley to conclude that his minutes will have to be earned on the defensive side before he can get anything close to considerable playing time.


While this is no surprise considering that Spoelstra is cut from the same cloth as Riley, you have to wonder if this attitude is beneficial to both the Heat and Beasley. The problem I have with this is that while there is no doubting Riley's coaching credentials, he has always been notoriously gun shy in giving out minutes to rookies. He, like many old school coaches subscribes to the notion that the NBA is largely the No Boys Allowed league and that means minutes for rookies are anything but guaranteed.


Even if there might be something to be said for an approach that keeps a young player’s ego in check, you can’t treat the second overall pick of the draft, a player coming off the best statistical season of any freshman in the NCAA, the same way you would treat a fringe second round player. To put it mildly Beasley needs a much longer leash. Not only would this benefit him, but the team as a whole since there could be longer stretches of play with a legit second option on the floor with Wade. Besides, the only way a young player develops better team defense is by (wait for it, novel concept) getting consistent enough minutes so that he is developing chemistry with his teammates even when he is struggling.


Look no further than the other heralded rookies this year. Derrick Rose has had games that vary from brilliant to barely watchable. However you don’t see Vinny Del Negro benching Rose after a poor shooting, high turnover game. He is given enough room for error that he can make a couple bad plays without nervously looking at the bench to see if his backup is tearing off the sweatpants and moving towards the scorer’s table.


I was hopeful that Spoelstra would emulate Stan Van Gundy’s handling of a young Dwyane Wade in deciding how to proceed with Beasley. Unfortunately we’ve witnessed the youngest, baby-faced coach take the hard-line, old school mentality.


I am not denying that his defense needs work and it would be nice to see him in the low post more often. These are points that should be addressed. However, considering that Beasley is putting up better rookie numbers than Bosh, KG, David West, Amare did without having plays run for him, it is clear that Beasley at 19 has a vast amount of untapped potential. Here’s hoping he’s given a chance to show some of it this year.