Michael Beasley Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Heat Sign Michael Beasley To 10-Day Contract

February 26th, 2015 at 11:49am CST by Chuck Myron

The Heat have signed Michael Beasley to a 10-day contract, the team announced. The former No. 2 overall pick had recently been working out at the Heat’s American AirlinesArena, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel noted. The 26-year-old had spent most of the season playing for Shanghai Dongfang in China after asking the Grizzlies to cut him loose from training camp to accommodate the deal. He becomes the 15th player on the Heat’s roster, joining fellow 10-day signee Henry Walker.

Beasley spent last season with the Heat after making the team on a non-guaranteed invitation to camp. The team didn’t offer him a chance to return this summer amid reported concerns about his defense and maturity. The Jared Karnes client instead went through a pair of workouts with the Lakers and auditioned for the Spurs before inking his camp deal with Memphis.

It’s the third stint with the Heat for Beasley, who first joined Miami when the team drafted him in 2008. Miami traded him in part to clear the way for LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010, but off-the-court trouble dogged him in subsequent NBA stops with the Timberwolves and the Suns before the Heat gave him a second chance last season. Defensive concerns aside, the 6’9″ combo forward performed capably in 15.1 minutes per game during the regular season, averaging 7.9 points and shooting 38.9% from behind the three-point line. He made it into only four playoff games last spring before bouncing back once more in China, winning the league’s All-Star Game MVP award and averaging 28.7 points and 10.4 rebounds per game across 37 appearances. Shanghai’s season is already over, allowing Beasley to return stateside.

Southeast Notes: Beasley, Dragic, Cole, Magic

February 21st, 2015 at 10:15pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Heat forward Michael Beasley could be an option to replace Chris Bosh, reports Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Bosh was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs this morning and will miss the rest of the season. Winderman notes that Beasley recently finished his season in China and has been holding workouts at Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena. Another possibility is free agent center Andray Blatche, whom the team considered earlier this season. Miami has a $2.65 MM disabled-player exception from the knee injury suffered by Josh McRoberts.

There’s more news from the Southeast Division:

Newly acquired Goran Dragic isn’t committing to staying with the Heat yet, but he’s offering hints that he would like to see it happen, Winderman tweets. Dragic adds that his focus for now is helping Miami for the rest of the season (Twitter link), and he hopes that he has “a lot more years” with the Heat, but the business side of basketball is unpredictable (Twitter link).
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told Winderman in a separate story that parting with Norris Cole was the most difficult part of the three-team trade that brought Dragic to Miami. Cole won two NBA titles in his three full seasons in Miami. “When you send a player like Norris Cole,” Spoelstra said, “to another team, a two-time champion, somebody that came up through our ranks — we developed him, we spent a lot of time when we drafted him — that’s always tough in this business.” For the record, the Bulls drafted Cole in 2011 and shipped him the next day to the Wolves, who flipped him to the Heat that same day.
The Magic aren’t planning any buyouts before the end of the season, reports Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. At age 33, Willie Green had been considered a possible candidate, but he flatly stated that he has no interest. “‘Buyout’ is not really in my language,” Green said. “I get paid to come in here to be professional and play hard and go out and try to help the team win. As far as I’m concerned, I’m with Orlando for the rest of the year.”

Poll: Will Michael Beasley Return To The NBA?

October 10th, 2014 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Michael Beasley‘s basketball odyssey took yet another unexpected turn Thursday, when he agreed to a deal to play for China’s Shanghai Sharks and the Grizzlies obliged, waiving his non-guaranteed contract. An undisclosed illness that kept him out of the team’s first preseason game might have helped contribute to the decision, since the 25-year-old had to make the most of his time this month if he were to have made the Grizzlies regular season roster, but his departure is nonetheless surprising. Memphis has guaranteed money on the books for 14 players, which left the Jared Karnes client a decent chance to stick for opening night, just as he did on a non-guaranteed deal with the Heat last season.

The former No. 2 overall pick didn’t see an abundance of playing time for the Finals-bound Heat, but he was effective when he did hit the floor, scoring 18.9 points per 36 minutes. He appeared in 55 regular season games but only four postseason contests, as it seemed by the spring that the Heat had already moved on. Team president Pat Riley was quick to dismiss whispers that his team continued to worry about Beasley’s maturity level, but the former Kansas State standout’s reputation is still in need of heavy scrubbing. It was little more than a year ago that the Suns took the unusual step of impugning Beasley’s “personal and professional conduct” when they waived him after agreeing to a buyout deal. That didn’t stop the Spurs, who tolerate no hijinks, from working him out this summer, and the Lakers auditioned him twice.

Beasley was one of the top scorers, rebounders and three-point shooters still on the market in August before he hooked on with the Grizzlies, so it’s clear that much of the talent that made him such an intriguing prospect when he came out of Kansas State in 2008 is still there. He’s only 25, so he still has time to forge a productive NBA career, if he gets that chance. That won’t happen until the end of the Chinese season, at the earliest. Let us know whether you think Beasley will make it back to the NBA, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.

Michael Beasley Leaves Grizzlies For China

October 9th, 2014 at 4:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:29pm: Memphis has officially waived Beasley, the team announced in a press release.

4:10pm: The Grizzlies reported that Beasley has been ill recently, making it difficult for him to contend for the final regular season roster spot, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel notes. This information sheds some more light on why Beasley would decide to leave an NBA training camp to play overseas.

2:00pm: Beasley is receiving a “lucrative” one-year deal from the Sharks, Wojnarowski writes in his full story. Wojnarowski indicates that he’s already signed the contract, but the move can’t become official until the Grizzlies let him go and Beasley receives FIBA clearance.

1:30pm: Michael Beasley is leaving the Grizzlies and will sign to play in China, agent Jared Karnes tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). He’s set to join the Yao Ming-owned Shanghai Sharks, Wojnarowski adds (on Twitter). Beasley is on a non-guaranteed contract with Memphis, but the team has yet to formally release him. The Grizzlies would have to be on board with the move for Beasley to depart, and the former No. 2 overall pick has the best track record of the six players on non-guaranteed deals that Memphis brought to camp. Memphis only has 14 guaranteed contracts, seemingly indicating that Beasley had a decent shot to make the opening-night roster.

Still, Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger said last month that the 25-year-old Beasley would have to “come in and take somebody’s spot,” suggesting that it wouldn’t necessarily be easy for him to remain on the roster into the regular season. The forward worked out for the Spurs and twice auditioned for Lakers brass, but it’s unclear if either club offered him a job. The Heat moved on from him after he spent last season with Miami, and while a report indicated the team had concerns about his maturity and his ability to play defense, Heat team president Pat Riley suggested there were no such issues.

Beasley was on a non-guaranteed contract this time last year with the Heat, but he stuck with the team for the entire season, averaging 7.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game. His 38.9% three-point shooting and 16.8 PER were his best marks in either category since his rookie season.

The terms of Beasley’s deal with Shanghai are unclear, but I’d imagine it involves some guaranteed salary, although that’s just my speculation. Most Chinese contracts involving NBA veterans cover one season without NBA escape clauses, but because the Chinese season ends much earlier than the NBA’s does, many players in Beasley’s position are able to latch on with NBA teams for the back stretch of the regular season and the playoffs.

Heat Rumors: 2016, Brown, Beasley, LeBron

October 6th, 2014 at 11:21am CST by Chuck Myron

The Heat aren’t title favorites anymore, but they remain a compelling team as the 2014/15 season approaches, with questions surrounding just how well they can play without LeBron James and whether Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade can fill the superstar void. Here’s the latest from South Beach:

Team president Pat Riley says he isn’t planning to make moves that cut into the team’s cap flexibility for the summer of 2016, observes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. That’s when the NBA starts receiving new TV revenue and several of the contracts Miami signed this summer come off the books. The Heat have about $29.5MM in commitments for the 2016/17 season.
Riley praised the way Shannon Brown, who’s on a non-guaranteed deal, performed so far in training camp, as Winderman writes in a separate piece. Riley also expressed pleasure about Shawne Williams, whose addition largely assured Michael Beasley wouldn’t be back, Winderman notes. “I love Mike, but we’re moving on,” Riley said. “When [LeBron James] left, we just cleaned the table. It’s time to move on. It really had nothing to do with anything but we’re just moving in another direction, in another way, and it was nothing punitive, there was nothing bad. I wish him nothing but the best. But we decided, in the long run, Josh McRoberts and Shawne, Chris [Bosh], Chris Andersen, Udonis [Haslem] and the guys we had there, I didn’t want him to be put in the position of not playing, maybe.” An earlier report indicated that some in the Heat organization had concerns about Beasley’s defense and maturity.
There are also some within the Heat who are upset that James ignored many of Riley’s attempts to communicate during his free agency this summer, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Some of them believe that the four-time MVP already knew he was going to sign with the Cavs when he met with Riley shortly before announcing his decision.

Western Notes: Beasley, Allen, Kings

October 1st, 2014 at 7:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace says Michael Beasley is one of six guys in training camp with a chance to show the team they deserve to snag the last regular-season roster spot, Teresa M. Walker of The Associated Press writes. “It’s up to him to show us, make the case for himself then we’ll see where this goes,” Wallace said. “We’re just at the beginning of it with training camp started, and obviously he’s someone that’s very talented … His career hasn’t gone the way he would’ve liked but this is the perfect place for him to rebound.”

Here’s more from out west:

Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that free agent Ray Allen was not a candidate to take the team’s final roster spot since Los Angeles has a glut of shooting guards already, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Allen hasn’t announced if he will play this season or retire despite numerous teams having interest in his services.
Rivers also added that Joe Ingles and Jared Cunningham are candidates for the team’s final regular-season roster spot, tweets Bolch. Both players are in training camp on non-guaranteed deals.
In his season preview for the Kings, Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio predicts a 40-win season and Sacramento missing out on the playoffs. Amico believes that the Kings are still one star player away from becoming a factor in the west.

West Notes: Jokic, Kanter, Burks, Gasol, Beasley

September 30th, 2014 at 7:50pm CST by Alex Lee

Here are the latest news and notes coming out of the Western Conference on Tuesday night:

There’s been no word of a deal between the Nuggets and Nikola Jokic, and his name isn’t among the 19 on the preseason roster that the Nuggets released today, so presumably the 41st overall pick from this year’s draft will remain under contract with Serbia’s KK Mega Vizura this season.
On the heels of yesterday’s report that the Jazz have opened extension talks with Enes Kanter and Alec Burks, GM Dennis Lindsey said the team anticipates the duo to be with the Jazz for a “long time,” writes Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune. “They’re both valued members and we’re really proud of where they’re at as people and as players,” Lindsey said. “We’ll see if we can get something done early … but we anticipate both of them being with the Jazz for a long time.”
When asked about his impending free agency next summer, Marc Gasol reiterated his affinity for his teammates and the city of Memphis, writes Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal in a subscription-only piece. Gasol also suggested that it would be hard to sign an extension prior to next summer knowing how quickly things can change in the NBA. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera said in August he’s determined to keep Gasol in Memphis for the rest of his career.
Also from Calkins’ story, Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger had the following to say when asked what it would take for Michael Beasley to end up on the roster: “Just be as good as he can be on the court and off the court. He’s going to have to come in and take somebody’s spot, and he knows that.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Grizzlies Officially Sign Beasley, Five Others

September 25th, 2014 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies formally announced the signings of Michael Beasley, Patrick Christopher, Earl Clark, Luke Hancock, Kalin Lucas and Hassan Whiteside via press release. The moves had been expected for all six, since each was reported to have come to terms on a deal with the team.

All six are on non-guaranteed contracts. The Grizzlies have the capacity to give more than the rookie minimum to Chrisopher, Hancock and Lucas, but it’s likely they’ve received minimum-salary arrangements just like the veteran additions for camp.

Beasley probably has the inside track for joining the team’s 14 players on fully guaranteed pacts for opening night, though Clark plays the same positions and looms as a threat should Beasley falter.

Grizzlies Sign Michael Beasley For Camp

September 23rd, 2014 at 6:53pm CST by Alex Lee

THURSDAY, 2:30pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

TUESDAY, 6:53pm: Michael Beasley has reached an agreement on a non-guaranteed contract with the Grizzlies, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Beasley spent this week working out with Memphis, according to Wojnarowski, who writes that the former No. 2 overall pick has chosen the Grizzlies because of the opportunity to make the team as a backup power forward. The Memphis roster now stands at 20, but with only 14 fully guaranteed deals Beasley figures to have a reasonable shot to break camp with the team. The Grizzlies are limited to giving him the minimum, since the sliver of their mid-level exception that they have remaining exceeds the amount of the rookie minimum, but not the minimum for a player with the six years of experience that Beasley has.

The talented but troubled Kansas State product, still only 25 years old, was drafted by Miami in 2008 and spent time with the Timberwolves and Suns before returning to the Heat for a second term last season. The Jared Karnes client auditioned for the Spurs last week, had a pair of workouts with the Lakers earlier in the offseason and had reportedly drawn interest from a few other teams. Beasley would have liked to have re-signed with the Heat, but concerns over his defense and maturity persuaded the team against bringing him back, we heard earlier this month.

Beasley has averaged 13.2 points and 4.9 rebounds over six years in the league. Last season, on a loaded Miami team, he posted career-low averages in points (7.9), rebounds (3.1) and minutes (15.1). He will be competing against fellow non-guaranteed camp invitees Earl Clark, Patrick Christopher, Luke Hancock, Kalin Lucas and Hassan Whiteside for the Grizzlies final roster spot.

Spurs Auditioning Michael Beasley

September 17th, 2014 at 11:46am CST by Chuck Myron

Michael Beasley is working out for the Spurs this week in San Antonio, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The former No. 2 overall pick is the latest and most high-profile in a string of veteran free agents the Spurs have reportedly auditioned, one that includes Hakim Warrick, Julyan Stone and Jamaal Franklin.

The Spurs are maintaining a dialogue with Aron Baynes, according to Wojnarowski, but fellow Yahoo! scribe Marc J. Spears reported this week that the club was open to sign-and-trade scenarios involving the restricted free agent. A fully guaranteed contract that bring Baynes back would be San Antonio’s 15th fully guaranteed deal, but while the slot sits open, the Spurs are showing interest in a long list of names, with Ray Allen the most prominent among them. Centers Gustavo Ayon and Ryan Hollins are also on the team’s radar.

The 25-year-old Beasley had a pair of workouts with the Lakers earlier in the offseason, but while several teams have reportedly expressed interest, no deal has materialized. The Jared Karnes client would have liked to have re-signed with the Heat, but the team didn’t make him an offer, tweets Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Concerns over Beasley’s defense and maturity had persuaded the team against bringing him back, as Jackson wrote last week.