Friday, June 20, 2008

Warming to Beasley

It seems that I, along with many other South Florida sports pundits, decided that Derrick Rose was the best option for Miami. As rumors swirled of Rose not even trying out for the Heat and begging the Bulls to take him, I've been rethinnking a bit. Could Beasley be the better pick after all?

These words from ESPN's John Hollinger are pretty encouraging:

"Beasley's rating is the highest of any player going back to 2002, and it's the best by a pretty sizable margin. Obviously, this isn't new information -- nobody doubts this guy's talent level.

But he might be even better than people realize. His numbers were superior even to Kevin Durant's from a year ago, and Durant had everyone gaga over his performance as a college freshman.

Somehow Beasley didn't resonate quite as strongly, perhaps because of concerns over his character, but if he keeps his head on straight he's going to be insanely good."


For those of you who don't know Hollinger, he doesn't get caught up in media hype. He bases his assertions on pure statistical data, which often proves correct.

Remember Jay Williams? He was supposed to be the great guard in his draft. Could Micheael Beasley be the real gem? I'm starting to think so.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The comparison to Durant is very fair. They both posted astonishing numbers in the Big XII. The key difference is that Durant had a much better supporting cast (Augstine, Abrams, etc.). I think this makes Beasley's numbers all the more impressive - defenses knew that he was the Wildcats only viable scoring option, they focused in on him, yet he still was able to do whatever he wanted on the basketball court.

Kevin Durant was rookie of the year last year. And Michael Beasley could be better than him. That should end all debate within Heat camp of whether to take Beasley or not.

ASponge said...

Very well stated, EJ. You know, I'm starting to feel great about this draft. I'd be happy with either one.

AND...when you pick second, you never have to second-guess yourself. The Bulls will get all the scrutiny, not the Heat,

Anonymous said...

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3452503

Uh...yeah?!