Michael Beasley Could Fit Long-Term Plans for Miami Heat

One of the key factors to the Miami Heat‘s demise in the 2014 NBA Finals was their lack of depth on the roster. Coach Erik Spoelstra elected to go with a 9-10 man rotation throughout the playoffs, leaving some of the younger players on the bench. One of these players was Michael Beasley. His absence throughout the playoffs left many wondering if his offensive abilities could have been put to better use — especially in the Finals, where the Heat really struggled to get any production offensively off the bench.

This offseason has the potential to be extremely tumultuous for the Heat organization, as 13 of the current 15 players are becoming either restricted or unrestricted free agents. Pat Riley has already stressed through his end-of-season press conference that adding younger players to complement the Heat’s Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh is the top priority. Beasley would fit this mold to a tee.

Although Beasley didn’t see much playing time this season, the Heat should absolutely give him another opportunity to prove himself and attempt to sign him to a similar one-year, $1.02 million contract. Beasley is still extremely young in this league, which fits right into the Heat’s long-term plans. The small forward position is also something the Heat will be looking shore up this offseason, and Beasley could be a huge offensive spark off the bench at said position.

Beasley averaged career-low numbers in almost every statistical category this season with the Heat, but this in large part is due to the lack of minutes he received, averaging just 15 a game (lowest of his career). If Beasley becomes the second option off the bench for LeBron, expect those numbers to skyrocket. If Beasley is willing to sign another veteran’s minimum contract (to help keep cap space for the Heat to sign other players), there is no reason why the Heat shouldn’t bring him on board for another season. His offense could prove to be extremely valuable down the stretch.

Jared Doyle is a Miami Heat writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @outofboundsjay, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google