Patrick Beverley was that guy who had you saying, “hey, who is that?”
Basketball fans would tune in to watch Olympiacos last year to catch Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza but Beverley would catch your eye. He was the point guard off the bench -- replacing Von Wafer after he was let go -- who brought energy and defense. Now, the former Arkansas player is going to get a shot to make an NBA roster.
The Miami Heat, who had his draft rights, reached a make-good deal with Beverly, according to Marc Spears of Yahoo.
However, our own Ira Winderman said in a tweet the point guard was a real long shot to make the Miami roster.
That roster is pretty full. The team already has Mario Chalmers and Carlos Arroyo ahead of him at the point guard position, and that on a team where Dwyane Wade and LeBron James will be the defacto point guards during games.
The Heat already have 14 guys under contract, are they going to pay for a point guard to be guy 15, when he would rarely get the chance to suit up? Probably not, but Beverley has gotten his way into camp and that is a good sign. Even if the Heat don’t keep him, he will have the chance to impress other teams.