Well, the dust has settled. After a great deal of trade posturing, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected University of Arizona big man Derrick Williams with the second pick in the NBA Draft. It was always a bit of a pipe dream for the Suns to put a package together to acquire the pick and the rights to the local product, but when one door closes another opens.
Now that Minnesota has Williams in the fold they have quite a bit of overlap with another small forward/power forward tweener - Michael Beasley. Since being selected by the Heat out of Kansas State with the second overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, Beasley has suffered some very public growing pains.
He wasn't the main guy in Miami - they were obviously Dwyane Wade's team. He has invited character concerns after tweeting a picture of himself with marijuana in the backgorund and then suffering a bit of a mental breakdown in the aftermath.
Yet after Miami assembled their Big Three and dealt Beasley to Minnesota for scraps, he's blossomed and matured a bit. In just his third season he averaged 19.2 points per game while posting 5.6 rebounds a contest. Perhaps even more importantly, all the character concerns appear to have quieted.
Certainly his production isn't to the level of his draft-mate Derrick Rose (the 2011 NBA MVP), but he's still a guy that averaged nearly 20 points a game at the young age of 22. Anyone that's watched Beasley realizes he possesses a unique ability to score in many different ways and from many different angles.
As a K-State alum, I've watched a near embarrassing amount of Michael Beasley basketball and I can tell you flat out -- the guy just knows how to put a basketball in the basket.
What Beasley needs is a situation where he doesn't have to take a leadership role and will be asked to simply score. Enter the Phoenix Suns.
With veterans Steve Nash and Grant Hill around to lead, Beasley can take a back seat and truly learn how to be a professional. All the Suns will ask of him is that he be their primary scorer - and I don't think that will be a problem for him.
From a weakness standpoint, Beasley isn't a true power forward, isn't a great defender, and isn't near the rebounder he was in college (even then if you watched the games it was clear he wasn't that good at it). But if he's able to play next to Marcin Gortat, those issues can be masked.
Beasley is a player that is almost certainly going to be available. In order to improve their team, the Suns should assemble a competitive package to bring Beasley to Phoenix. He's not perfect, but any time you have a chance to grab a young player with that much talent, you need to take the chance -- especially when you have the aging roster of the Phoenix Suns.