Malik Beasley should be in consideration for the “UPWSTPPGFTFITC” award this season. This is not an award that normally gets a lot of attention from the mainstream media, but role-player fetishists such as myself are always eager to see who will win it.
In case you haven’t heard of the award before and don’t know what the acronym stands for, it’s the “Unexpected Player Who Scored Ten Points Per Game For The First Time In Their Career” award. It goes to the player who was least expected to score ten points per game or more, but did. And right now, Beasley, with his 10.7 PPG, has the award on lock. The only player close to him in my unofficial standings for the award is fellow Nugget Monte Morris.
Actually, upon further review, Monte Morris has the award on lock. But still. I didn’t expect Beasley to be this good at all. Nuggets fans might have been aware of his untapped talent, but I certainly wasn’t. And with the assumption that Jamal Murray/Gary Harris/Will Barton would be sucking up all the shooting guard minutes this season, I didn’t think Beasley was going to play nearly this much. But some injuries happened and he proved his worth, so now he’s a real member of the rotation.
He just has to hope that Monte Morris falls off a cliff, and then the UPWSTPPGFTFITC award will be his.