Just 11 games into the season, Malik Beasley has proven to be worth every penny for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Perhaps no other player in the NBA had a more eventful past 10 months than Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley.
After the Denver Nuggets traded Beasley to the Timberwolves in February, the former No. 19 overall pick lit up the Target Center. In 14 games with the Wolves at the end of the 2019-20 season, Beasley averaged 20.7 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting from three on 8.2 attempts per game.
COVID-19 shut the Wolves’ season down in March and kept the team off the court for nearly 10 months, until the 2020-21 season began on Dec. 23. During the hiatus, Beasley made what could safely be classified as a number of … questionable decisions off the court.
The tumultuous offseason of Minnesota Timberwolves’ guard Malik Beasley
On Sep. 26, he was arrested at his home in Plymouth on a couple of concerning charges. Two days before the season, started Beasley pleaded guilty to one count of threats of violence, for which he’ll serve 120 days in the workhouse or on house arrest after the season. The drug-related charge was dismissed.
While this was all going on, Beasley’s wife filed for divorce after tabloids around the world published pictures of Beasley holding hands with Real Housewives of Miami star and Scottie Pippen’s estranged wife, Larsa Pippen.
At virtually the same time, the Timberwolves re-signed Beasley, a restricted free agent, to a four-year, $60 million contract that drew the ire of some Wolves fans who thought the team overpaid for a shooting guard who played at a high level for just 14 NBA games.
But now, only 11 games into the new season, Beasley has already proven that the contract wasn’t a mistake and the Timberwolves didn’t vastly overpay to keep him.
Malik Beasley has been worth the money for the Minnesota Timberwolves
The 24-year-old is having the best season of his career, averaging 20.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and two assists per game while continuing to blaze the nets from beyond the arc, shooting 38.7 percent from three.
The Timberwolves sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a disappointing 3-8 record, but Beasley has arguably been Minnesota’s second-best player behind Karl-Anthony Towns, who has only played in four games to start the season.
According to Spotrac, Beasley has the NBA’s 90th biggest cap hit for the 2020-21 season at $13.4 million, ranking No. 23 among shooting guards. If you’re scoring at home, that’s just behind Danny Green and Terrence Ross and just ahead of J.J. Redick and Tony Snell.
Now, it’s unlikely that anyone is quite ready to say that Malik Beasley is the 90th best player in the NBA this year, but he’s almost certainly a top-23 shooting guard in The Association, making his re-signing much more reasonable than fans may have originally thought.
So far this season, the Wolves’ sniper is No. 35 in the NBA in scoring and 12th among shooting guards. His 38.7 percent from three is only No. 28 in the league for shooting guards but bumps up to No. 12 among shooting guards who average more than five 3-point attempts per game.
Thanks to Minnesota’s struggling offense and historically bad defense through the team’s first 11 games, Beasley has a net rating of -6.1. If you look at his on/off net rating, it’s actually third-best on the team (not counting end-of-bench players Jaden McDaniels or Jaylen Nowell) at +12. That’s behind only Towns and Josh Okogie, who have combined to play 103 fewer minutes this season than Beasley.
His impact on the offense is evident every night, as the Timberwolves only muster 94.6 points per 100 possession with Beasley on the bench, as opposed to 108.4 when Beasley is part of the offense.
Malik Beasley still must improve defensively for the Minnesota Timberwolves
Beasley’s biggest weakness comes on the defensive end of the court. Everyone knew when he re-signed that the Wolves were paying Beasley for his offense and would live with his poor defense. Opposing teams score 114.5 points per 100 possessions with Beasley on the court. That isn’t good, but to his credit — or Minnesota’s discredit — it’s only fifth-worst on the team and somehow five points better than his defensive rating in his 14 games in Minnesota last season.
Beasley may not be the best defender in the world, but at least he plays with energy and tries to give the team a boost even if he often gets beaten off the dribble.
In this year’s still-small sample size, Beasley also plays far better in the friendly confines of the Target Center than he does on the road. In six home games, Beasley is averaging 25 points per game on 54.6 percent shooting and 47.9 percent from three. Conversely, Beasley has been abysmal in Minnesota’s five road games, averaging just 14.4 points per game while shooting 32.4 percent from the field and just 22.2 percent from three.
Who knows what the root of his struggles on the road is, perhaps it’s the fact that all three of Minnesota’s wins have come at home, but if Beasley can straighten out his road struggles he will be able to take his already thriving offensive game to the next level.
The last year has been a turbulent time on and off the court for Malik Beasley. But if the first 11 games of the season are any indicator, the Wolves didn’t overpay during the offseason for one of the most offensively gifted young shooting guards in the NBA.