Keyon Dooling's Contract More Valuable Than SuperCoolBeas's?

[Bob Lanier]

Jason Smith of ESPN Radio's "NBA Today" podcast reports that an NBA general manager told him the Heat offered Michael Beasley to the Nets for Keyon Dooling and "Rod Thorn turned them down". (http://www.netsdaily.com/2010/6/2/1497982/did-thorn-turn-down-dooling-for) Smith described Thorn's decision as yet another indication of how badly the Heat want to get rid of Beasley.

However, a look at the two teams' salary structures show that it may be more about cap space. Beasley is scheduled to make $4,962,240 next season while Dooling is only owed a $500,000 buyout on his $3,828,000. The Nets have a team option on Dooling exercisable June 29. So taking on Beasley would have reduced the Nets' cap space by nearly $4.5 million. It would have made the Heat much more competitive in free agency this summer as well, giving them more than $25 million to spend...as well as Dwyane Wade.

* NBA Today on ESPN Radio (Audio) @10:00 - Jason Smith - ESPN Radio (http://cdn11.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/7089/337054/nbatoday_2010-06-02-122807-3953-0-0-0.32.mp3)

[Mel_13]

Wow. Can't even give away the number 2 overall pick from the 2008 draft.

[baseline bum]

Wow. Can't even give away the number 2 overall pick from the 2008 draft.

It's lessening the capspace of one of Miami's chief rivals while expanding their own, and would give them the chance to sign 2 of LeBron, Bosh, Amare, Dirk, or Joe Johnson in addition to keeping Wade. It's not quite like when the Spurs just dumped Beno for nothing.

[kobyz]

Miami want to add the Nets salary cause they in fight for free agents with them!

[MiamiHeat]

lol Nets are dumb to turn it down

yeah Nets get a little weaker in their cap space, but you get a great offensive player in beasley....

thats dumb

[SomeCallMeTim]

Maybe they figure the ability to offer more money to free agents in the market is worth more than a 3/4 that could be a really good player once he gets his mind straight. Certainly doesn't make sense to me.

The Nets want all the flexibility possible to add a game changer (or two). Beasley's not a game changer and there are troubling signs that his career may be very disappointing.

[MiamiHeat]

Is Beasley's work ethic and attitude that poor? Seriously the man has all the tools to be an All-Star in the NBA, but whats going on with him?

he's slow in the head. he takes a long time to learn things, which sucks.

he has no attitude problem though. he listens to coach, and he was benched his rookie year and he didn't get upset. he's a good kid, but he is immature at times.

he also is a liability on defense.

BUT

the kid can score on almost anyone. he can hit the J from almost anywhere, he can drive and finish strong, he's good, he can create his own shot... but coach can't trust him much because of his defense.

and he is a bit of a tweener. not really great size for a PF, but not quick enough to be an elite SF....

still though, Amare is a liability on defense too, and he's an all star.

if Beasley was given free reign to chuck up shots, he would put up 25 ppg.

[duncan228]

The Nets Wouldn’t Trade Keyon Dooling for Michael Beasley (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=tsn-thenetswouldnttradek)
SportingNews

Michael Beasley has not had a very pleasant year. Last summer, a picture posted to Twitter showed potential bags of marijuana in the background, and a few days later he was in rehab. Then, after seemingly turning around his life off the court, he struggled to find consistent success for the Heat this season and was a resounding failure during the playoffs.

Still, he has widely been assumed to be the team’s top trading chip in all negotiations. Which makes this story first mentioned on ESPN’s NBA Today podcast (http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=3634017) quite shocking. Apparently, the Nets turned down a straight-up deal of Beasley for backup guard Keyon Dooling. Ira Winderman has more (http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_basketball_heat/2010/06/ask-ira-did-heat-offer-beasley-for-dooling.html) for SunSentinel.com:

Here’s the deal: While Keyon is due $3.6 million next season, his contract can be bought out for $500,000 by June 29. So, in essence, the Heat can launder Beasley’s contract through a Dooling trade, release Dooling, and then benefit by the extra cap space. I would not be surprised if the Heat made such an offer. That said, I made a bunch of calls after ESPN mentioned the possibility on one of its podcasts and came to the realization that the Nets simply have no interest in Beasley and would rather maximize their own cap space.

From the Miami point of view, this is not terribly surprising—they would then be able to sign three (!) max players this summer and basically print championship trophies for the rest of time.

New Jersey’s decision is a little harder to understand. Yes, cap space is nice, but the Nets aren’t exactly at the top of free agent destination wish lists even with Mikhail Prokhorov bringing the team new money, respect, and jetskis. Beasley isn’t a world-beater, but he would seem to have maintained some of his considerable potential.

Yet they’d rather have the cap space, and it’s easy to explain why. For a team with so much in flux, picking up a confusing player with an uncertain future isn’t exactly the best idea. He’s just not a good fit for what the Nets are trying to do right now.

Of course, that also makes you wonder which kind of team Beasley would actually fit into. It seems that the days of Michael Beasley as an up-and-coming talent are over. We—and that includes Beasley—must adjust our expectations. Look for him as an end-of-the-bench player looking to work his way back up to respectability soon. The hard work starts now.