Miami Heat’s Michael Beasley active for Game 5 of NBA Finals
After much speculation around the media world, it has now been confirmed, just a short time before Game 5 of the NBA Finals is set to get underway, that reserve forward Michael Beasley will indeed be active.
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Now, this doesn’t mean very much. Beasley being active could be nothing more than he’s the 12th man on the bench that could only play during garbage time.
He has only played in 55 games this season and has played six total minutes in the playoffs. He’s never been a part of Spoelstra’s regular rotation, so there isn’t much evidence to believe that he will play tonight, and if he does play, that it will be for an extended period of time.
The reason it’s so doubtful that Beasley would play, outside of not being a big part of the Heat’s rotation all season, is that he hasn’t played all that well as of late.
Over his entire career he’s been a negative on defense and, at best, a neutral on offense. His shot selection is bad, and for some reason, he has a reputation for being a guy that can be given the ball and get a team a bucket when he’s never been all that effective of an isolation player. In the one game in whichhe received more than a minute of play during these playoffs, he looked like he didn’t belong on the court with everybody else. It wasn’t lost, it wasn’t even lazy, he just looked out of place.
Despite all the negatives surrounding Beasley, his continuing support will forever live on, although there’s no real explanation for it. Maybe it’s because of his play at the collegiate level at Kansas State, or it’s possible he’s been on so many bad NBA teams that’s covered up his poor play throughout his career.
Whether or not Beasley plays tonight won’t matter. His support will continue on, despite no rational reason for it to.