The Heat are bringing Michael Beasley along extremely slowly in hopes that their veteran leadership and championship environment can break him of his apathetic basketball habits on the court, and his historically poor decisions off of it.
Beasley saw his first minutes of action this season in the Heat’s fourth game, a win over the Toronto Raptors. He did what he does best, and that’s shoot the basketball.
In a spurt that lasted less than four minutes, Beasley got four shots up, and made two of them on consecutive possessions from three-point distance. He also managed to record a blocked shot and a turnover during that same span, which was his only stint of the night.
From Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:“Michael played, from the outside, a small amount of minutes,” Spoelstra said, “but they were important minutes.”
Beasley, signed in the offseason to a one-year, veteran-minimum free-agent contract, converted his first two shots, a pair of 3-pointers, playing 3:59 in the first half, his lone stint of the night.
“It felt good to give a spark,” Beasley said. “I had the mindset to stay ready.”Beasley is essentially a lottery ticket for the back-to-back defending champs. If it doesn’t pan out, it’s a small financial risk. But if Beasley can fall in line, he’s shown an ability throughout his career to be a talented offensive player when tuned to the right frequency.
