Michael Beasley Will Start at SF

According to the Miami Herald, Michael Beasley will be in the starting lineup at small forward this week for the Miami Heat:

Michael Beasley has emerged from a crowded field and is poised to be in the starting lineup for Miami’s preseason opener Monday at Detroit.

Beasley opened Sunday’s scrimmage with the first-team group that featured Mario Chalmers and Dwyane Wade in the backcourt, Udonis Haslem at power forward and Jermaine O’Neal at center.

The transition for Beasley from power forward to the perimeter has been in progress for months. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday he has been impressed with how Beasley has performed at a high level consistently at both forward spots during training camp.

And while Beasley’s certainly made progress in developing his game on the perimeter, SBN’s Peninsula is Mightier points out that he still has a ways to go in his development:

The Heat closed out training camp today with a friendly little inter-squad scrimmage. In doing so, Erik Spoelstra indicated who he has at the top of the depth chard at small forward. Michael Beasley will be, at least for now, the Heat’s starting small forward. Let that sink in for a minute.

Beasley worked very hard all summer and has expanded his game on both sides of the floor. He has continued to develop his outside game and is working on his post up skills, and while his defense continues to improve, it still has a ways to go. During the scrimmage today, Beasley was matched up against his main competition at the 3, James Jones, who got the best of Beas on several occasions.

Jones beat Beasley on a pump-fake to draw a foul. He also beat Beasley on the baseline to get to an offensive rebound. And Jones also delivered the final dagger of the scrimmage, dropping a 3-pointer over a late-arriving Beasley to lead the “white” team of backups to a 17-16 win over the “black” team of starters.

Should this be the way we go into the season, there is going to be a lot of guys competing for only a few minutes. We’ll see how this experiment works out as we get closer to the regular season, but in the meantime just remember that its still very much a learning process for Beasley.

It’s no surprise that someone like Beasley would struggle with this type of transition. Especially against a player like James Jones, someone that makes up for inferior talent by expertly taking advantage of any lapses by the defense. And Beasley, for all his virtues as a scorer, is sure to have plenty of lapses as he gets used to playing against faster players that run the floor on every possession. The pace will be dramatically different, and while it’s something Beasley can ultimately handle, the evolution won’t come without some growing pains over the first 6 weeks or so of the ’09 season.