This game from Michael “Waffle Fries” Beasley is reminiscent of some of the games he had during his stint in New York last season, and before that, during his stints with the Bucks and Rockets. The quick-hitting scoring done off the bench on a variety of drives, ISOs, and jumpshots is fun to watch when the shots are falling, which they usually are for Beasley (he’s been well above 50% from the field in his past four seasons combined).
The fact that Beasley effortlessly scored 19 points in 19 minutes game action is another strike against Luke Walton, who apparently doesn’t have room in the rotation for a scoring machine like Beasley, but does have room for meme players like Lance Stephenson who are only well-liked because they do stupid post-shot celebrations. If Beasley pretended to do a sick shredding guitar solo after every shot he made, would Walton give him more minutes? I’m inclined to think that, yes, Beasley would consistently get into games if he did something like that.
Maybe the problem is that Beasley and LeBron can’t coexist. Both need the ball. Both are dominant scorers. Perhaps LeBron doesn’t take kindly to standing in the corner on offense while Beasley twirls his way in for a tough layup. The solution to this quandary, of course, is to trade LeBron James to the Bucks in exchange for Khris Middleton and Thon Maker. Everybody wins: Beasley gets unleashed, LeBron wins another championship, and Thon goes away forever.
I keep saying this, but, damn. I should be a GM.