Milwaukee Bucks: Grading The Michael Beasley Trade

What The Bucks Acquired

Michael Beasley has had an interesting NBA journey thus far. Beasley was overwhelmingly good in college, but it didn’t take him long to mar what he was able to do on the court with non-basketball related issues.

Beasley has gotten in trouble for incidents involving marijuana several times, which helps to explain why despite averaging 19.2 points per game on 45 percent field goal shooting and 36.6 percent three-point shooting back in 2010-11 he’s played on four different teams in his eight NBA seasons.

Despite that, Beasley was actually quite good with Houston last year. He played just 18.2 minutes per game with the Rockets, but had terrific per 36 minutes stats. Beasley averaged 25.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks per 36 while shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

The issue with Beasley is the volume of shots he takes. He took 20.3 shots per 36 minutes last season, which would’ve far and away led the 2015-16 Milwaukee Bucks. Greg Monroe led the Bucks in shots taken per 36 last year at 14.6.

That kind of volume won’t work on the Bucks. With Giannis and Jabari Parker becoming excellent offensive players, Michael Beasley can’t lead the team in shots. He’s a 6’10” 27-year-old forward with a lot of talent, but for him to work out with the Bucks he’ll have to recognize he’s not been brought in to lead the team.