Notice Kevin Durant standing there like a gentleman…

Later, it looks like Beasley comes over to apologize…

End the lockout, please.

Last week, T-Wolves GM David Kahn compared Darko Milicic to Chris Webber, and even called Milicic the ‘best passing big man’ that he’s ever seen.

Webber took umbrage to the comparison to Darko and Kahn had this to say to the Star Tribune:

“He’s kind of a schmuck, isn’t he? Methinks that he spent a lot of time on NBA TV with a former Timberwolves person and he seemed to come into the interview with an agenda. Tough questions are fine, but I felt like he was a little defensive about some of the things.”

Kahn also discussed Michael Beasley’s history in Miami:

“He’s a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore,” Kahn said, “and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case.”

I feel bad for T-Wolves fans, especially after so many years of Kevin McHale, but this cat is nothing if not entertaining.

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop poses one of the more puzzling questions that has been troubling me for some time.

How did one of the NBA’s more respected franchises, one with some strong characters like Pat Riley and Alonzo Mourning on the case, give up on an affordable player with insane potential?

Remember that enormous mess his life became last summer? With the rehab and all that?

They got to know him for two years and, after shopping around for months and months and finding no takers, ditched him for almost nothing.

This in a league where players with far less going for them than Beasley get paid for their potential all the time.

That’s not good.

And it’s not like his play as been abysmal. His PER last season was in the top 100 of all players, above average in the 16s, one notch ahead of Luol Deng who has what was until this month the biggest contract in Chicago Bulls’ history. Also trailing Beasley in regular season production last season: respected players like Aaron Brooks, Lamar Odom, Anderson Varejao, Jameer Nelson, Kyle Lowry, and Ray Allen. Nobody thinks Beasley has even scratched the surface of his NBA potential, but even at last year’s level he’s a bargain for a guy still on his rookie contract.

There’s a story in there somewhere. But from what has been made public, it makes no sense at all that the Heat would have to give him away.

While most of the focus this season will be about his old team, I’m really interested to what Beasley does with a fresh start in Minnesota. On his databasebasketball page, two players that are listed with high similarity scores are Brook Lopez and Kevin Love, so Beasley is obviously a talented guy. He’s just 21 years old and in two seasons has averaged 14 points and six boards while shooting 46% from the field.

Something strange happened in Miami and hopefully one day we’ll find out exactly what it was.

The Heat finally traded Michael Beasley away, and they didn’t get much in return.

The Miami Heat quickly followed up their triumph in the LeBron James sweepstakes by finding a taker for Michael Beasley.

But they had to virtually give away the No. 2 overall pick from the 2008 draft to do so.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that the Heat agreed Thursday night to a trade that will send Beasley to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who can simply absorb Beasley into empty salary-cap space and furnish Miami with additional financial flexibility to continue the dramatic transformation of its roster.

To complete the trade, Minnesota must only part with a 2011 second-round pick to acquire Beasley. The teams have also agreed to a swap of unspecified future first-round picks.

The swap of “unspecified future first-round picks” could be substantial, depending on the details. The T-Wolves will probably be in the lottery while the Heat should be picking near the end of the first round for the rest of the decade, so it could be a meaningful move up for the Heat.

The move clears enough cap space to give LeBron, Wade and Bosh five-year max contracts, though they might take a bit less in order to fit someone like Mike Miller in under the cap. Miami is discussing a sign-and-trade for Bosh to get him an extra year and more money. It will be interesting to see if they go through with it, because it’s going to cost the Heat draft picks that could be used to build a supporting cast around its new ‘Miami Thrice.’

For the T-Wolves, assuming that aforementioned first round pick is well-protected, Beasley is a nice acquisition. He’s just 21 years old and has averaged 14-6 in his first two years in the league. He can play either forward position depending on what kind of offense and tempo the T-Wolves want to play. In the triangle offense, he could be a Lamar Odom point-forward-type.

Per the Miami Herald…

The eve of free agency offered more convoluted speculation. One potential deal involved Toronto agreeing to send Bosh to Miami, with forward Michael Beasley, guard Mario Chalmers and center Joel Anthony, a native Canadian, going to the Raptors on July 8.

But multiple league sources disputed the deal, including a high-level Raptors source who said the team had no real interest in Beasley or Chalmers. Toronto would, however, consider a $16 million trade exemption and the return of its first-round pick from Miami in the 2009 Jermaine O’Neal trade for a potential Bosh move.

Bosh, who ranks the Heat among his top choices, would lose about $30 million in a guaranteed sixth-year salary if he bolted Toronto without a sign-and-trade deal.

That Bosh rumor was the hot topic on the eve of free agency, but it appears that the Raptors aren’t all that interested in Beasley. The Heat don’t have quite enough cap space to offer Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh max contracts, but if they were able to move Beasley, they’d be very, very close. The Raptors disinterest doesn’t mean that a deal can’t happen, however. If the Heat got a third team involved, one that was interested in Beasley, then a deal could still be struck.

The Raptors disinterest makes some sense. Beasley is a face up power forward, and that’s the natural position of former #1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani. The Raptors need a post up center to play alongside Bargnani.

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Miami Herald sports columnist Dan LeBartard is reporting that Bosh-to-Miami is pretty much a done deal.

I hear bosh-miami is done ..bosh-wade shared agent avoids tampering…its why beasley, chalmers, anthony still here…raptors get them

This is unconfirmed and can’t become ‘official’ until midnight. He mentions Bosh’s agent, Henry Thomas. Thomas is also Wade’s agent, so it’s possible that this deal was worked out through him. But the Heat had to be involved at some point to know which players to hold on to.

If the report is true, it lends credence to the rumor that LeBron, Bosh and Wade are going to hook up in Miami. At the very least, Wade and Bosh would form a nice duo in South Florida.

It’s funny, when I suggested a Beasley-for-Bosh trade late last year, Raptor fans thought I was nuts. Now what do they think?

Of course, LeBatard could have the story wrong. Rumors are flying fast and furious right now.

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According to Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh have gone so far as to discuss the ‘financial machinations’ of the three playing together in South Florida.

The Sun Sentinel has learned that the three star free agents have gone as far as to acknowledge that it might not be possible for the Heat to clear the needed space to start each of the three at the $16.6 million maximum salary that they would be eligible for in the first year of new contracts.

According to the source, the three have agreed to consider to “split the money up,” if need be.

I’m no salary cap expert (though I play one on TV), but looking at the Heat’s salary cap situation — I usually use ShamSports, but the site is down at the moment — reveals that the Heat have three (maybe four, if we include Joel Anthony) players under contract for a total of $6.869 million. The Heat recently waived James Jones, which will cost them $1.9 million this season. With an estimated salary cap of $56.1 million, that leaves $47.331 million to spend on LeBron/Wade/Bosh, or $15.8 million per player. Though that number is actually a little less due to the minimum salary cap holds for the remaining roster spots.

Regardless, if these three let $0.8 million per season (or a bit more) get in the way of a dynasty, they should have their heads examined.

Of course, Wade’s agent, Henry Thomas, denies that the meeting took place in Miami, because his client was not in Miami this weekend.

“Dwyane was not in Miami this weekend,” Thomas said. “That is untrue.”

“I said when it first broke about that, that the guys would undoubtedly talk with each other, which they have. That’s not a surprise to anyone,” Thomas said. “But this meeting this weekend in Miami just did not take place. Dwyane was not in Miami this weekend.”

Chances are that Thomas is telling half-truths to protect his clients. (He also represents Chris Bosh.) It’s possible that the meeting took place on a non-weekend day or in some other South Florida locale that isn’t technically the city of Miami. These are the kinds of games that agents play.

But back to the Heat, who could give Michael Beasley away to create more cap space. His stock seems to be at an all time low, which is puzzling because he hasn’t had a bad career so far (14-6, 46% shooting) and seems to have cleaned up his act off the court. If they are able to move him, they could start LeBron, Wade and Bosh at the max. The Heat should hold onto Beasley if they can, and see if he thrives in a scoring role off the bench.

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I took a lot of heat (pun intended) over my assertion that the Raptors should have thought about trading Chris Bosh at the trade deadline instead of waiting for the summer.

Now the franchise is coming to the realization that Bosh is very likely on the way out, but they still hope to work out a sign-and-trade with his new team so that he can get a max contract and they can get something in return.

[GM Bryan] Colangelo told radio station Fan590 in Toronto that the Raptors still hope to keep the All-Star forward, but if Bosh does want to leave, he will try to work a sign-and-trade arrangement that could help both sides.

“As we look at Chris as a potential free agent, our own free agent, wanting to re-sign him, I still have that intention and desire,” Colangelo said. “But it’s becoming more and more clear that that’s not going to happen. Now we need to decide what the best way is to come out of this.”

A sign-and-trade would allow Bosh to get an extra year on his contract while enabling the Raptors to receive something in return for losing him. If Bosh simply signs with another team, it could cost him about $30 million.

I still think the chances of a sign-and-trade are relatively slim. That $30 million number is always thrown around, but it doesn’t take into account the money earned in the first year of the player’s next contract, so really the difference is about $10-$12 million. It’s still a consideration, but when a player says his #1 goal is winning titles, it doesn’t make much sense for him to force a sign-and-trade and effectively fleece his new team of its young prospects and draft picks.

The only type of sign-and-trade that make sense for Bosh and the Raptors this summer is one that brings back a player that plays the same position that Bosh does. For example, if Bosh decides to sign with the Knicks, the Raptors could work out a sign-and-trade that would include David Lee. This is about the best case scenario for Toronto, as the other players in the Bosh sweepstakes simply don’t have players of Lee’s caliber.

The Bulls have Luol Deng, but he’s more of a small forward and his salary is pretty steep — I’m not even sure the Raptors would want to take it on. Miami’s Michael Beasley makes sense, but his stock is awfully low right now and the Raptors don’t seem all that interested. Besides, if Bosh leaves, they’d like to move Bargnani to power forward, which seems to be Beasley’s natural position.

Predictably, Colangelo tries to spin the current situation:

“It’s the perfect storm for Chris Bosh to leave and unfortunately we’re possibly going to be on the short end of that, but we will evolve,” Colangelo said. “We will have to evolve and move forward.”

This didn’t happen overnight. If I could see the writing on the wall late last year, then surely Colangelo did too. The sign-and-trade strategy makes sense when there aren’t very many teams under the cap, but with this much cap space floating around, Bosh has plenty of options to sign with another team free and clear, and that may very well leave the Raptors out in the cold.

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It would appear so, assuming this Nets Daily report is true.

Jason Smith of ESPN Radio’s “NBA Today” podcast reports that an NBA general manager told him the Heat offered Michael Beasley to the Nets for Keyon Dooling and “Rod Thorn turned them down”. Smith described Thorn’s decision as yet another indication of how badly the Heat want to get rid of Beasley.

While the deal certainly would have reduced the Nets’ cap space (by about $4.5 million). The Nets are on the hook for about $20 million heading into free agency, so they theoretically have about $36 million that they could spend. If they struck this deal, that number would have dropped to about $31.5 million, which would make it a little bit tougher to squeeze two “max” free agents under the cap.

The Nets may wait to see how free agency goes before acquiring Beasley, but another team might step in and take him off the Heat’s hands. Miami wants to move him so they can create enough cap space to sign two max free agents plus re-sign Dwyane Wade.

As for Beasley, he averaged 15-6 in about 30 minutes a game. His PER (16.16) was above average, even if it dropped from his rookie season (17.28). I’m surprised to see that his stock is so low that the Heat can’t even seem to give him away.

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Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel had this to say about Michael Beasley’s future in Miami:

If Wade returns, then Beasley never will get to move closer to the leading-man role he so craves.

Considering his final act this season was being benched for the second half of Tuesday’s series-ending loss to the Celtics, it would appear that a parting would be in the best interest of all parties.

While Beasley should be able to produce breakout numbers on a team less caught up in pick-and-roll offense and defensive efficiency, his value is such that the best net gain in a deal for the Heat could be additional cap space.

Trying to continue to make this work could be very difficult for the Heat, especially if Erik Spoelstra is back as coach.

I’m not exactly sure why everyone is so down on Beasley. As John Hollinger put it, “Beasley produced the most successful disappointing rookie season ever, earning criticism for much of the year despite averaging 22.4 points per 40 minutes and posting a 17.23 PER.” His PER this season (16.16) was #28 amongst power forwards, but not a deal breaker given his rookie PER and the fact that he’s a 21-year-old kid coming out of rehab (for what, we do not know).

He’s a very good scorer, and probably needs to go to a bad offensive team where he can take a lot of shots. He has a poor reputation defensively, and would need to go somewhere where either a) defense doesn’t matter all that much, or b) there’s a strong enough defensive culture to offset his lack of desire on that end of the court. He’s enough of a competitor that I think he can at least get to the point where he’s not hurting his team defensively.

The bottom line is that he’s not fitting in with the Heat so he could probably be had for next to nothing this summer. It will be interesting to see where he lands.


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