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2024 Free Agents - Malik Beasley

Summary
Beasley had some solid early years in Denver, establishing himself as a solid rotation-level player. He had a breakout year in '18-'19, shooting 42% from three while playing over 22 minutes per game in 81 games for a Nuggets team that stormed its way to the 2nd seed in the West.

While he hasn't quite continued that level of shooting, he still hit a very good 39% of his 3-pointers during his two and a half season stint in Minnesota. That has become even more important since he has started living from outside more often, as around 70% of Beasley's field goal attempts have been 3-pointers over the past three seasons. Beasley didn't shoot as well in '22-'23 for the Jazz and Lakers, hitting 36% of his attempts, but on high volume. He hit 41% from 3 in '23-'24 with the Bucks.

While you never want a player to be too one-dimensional, Beasley taking more threes is probably good for him. He hasn't been finishing well at the rim, only hitting about 50% of his twos over the past few seasons. He's not a super explosive athlete that can finish above the rim, and doesn't have a ton of craft to finish consistently below the rim.

Beasley isn't a play-maker for others, putting up low assist rates consistently throughout his career. To his credit, he's not a one-dimensional shooter, as he can hit shots off movement, and is not just a stand-still spot-up shooter. He can take a couple dribbles, and has the pump-fake, sidestep three-pointer in his game.

Defensively, Beasley has decent size for a wing, but at 6'5" he is better off defending guards and smaller wings rather than some of the bigger, stronger forwards. He moves his feet decently as an on-ball defender, but defense certainly isn't his strength. Beasley isn't a very disruptive defender, posting really low block rates and below-average steal rates for most of his career. 
 
Beasley's market in free agency wasn't that great in 2023, but he should continue to stay in the league for a long time as long as he hits shots at a high rate and performs adequately as a defender. He struggled with the Lakers and fell out of the rotation completely in the 2023 playoffs, and ended up moving to the bench for the Bucks once the games mattered the most, mostly because of his defensive deficiencies. 
 
Cap Considerations
Beasley will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Bucks could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.6 million. This should be enough to retain Beasley, since he settled for the minimum to come to Milwaukee. Alternatively, the Bucks could use their Mid-Level Exception or Bi-Annual Exception (if available) to re-sign Beasley if he demands more than $3.6 million. 

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Beasley as even teams without cap space could possibly use the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or possibly even the Taxpayer MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also possible that Beasley only gets minimum offers again.

Potential Teams: Magic, Bucks, Clippers, Suns, Raptors

Predicted Contract: 2-year, $20 million with the Magic

Actual Contract: 1-year, $6 million with the Pistons

Beasley didn't do quite as well as I expected, but still got a solid one-year contract with the Pistons, who desperately need his shooting.

Last updated: 7/10/2024

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