Lakers News: Insider Pitches Possible Trade Destinations For Malik Beasley
When the Los Angeles Lakers completely revamped their roster during the 2023 trade deadline, one of the more intriguing names coming in was none other than Malik Beasley. LeBron James has always had number of knockdown shooters whenever he has competed for championships and it seemed like Beasley was poised to be added to that list.
Looking all the way back to his first two championships with the Miami Heat, he had a number of catch and shoot options in Mike Miller, Ray Allen, and Shane Battier just to name a few. His 2016 Cavs squad featured J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. And of course, the 2020 champion Lakers had Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on their roster.
Beasley started off the 2022-2023 season hot with the Utah Jazz as he was among the league leaders in three-pointers made and was playing a key role in helping his squad make a playoff push despite trading away both of their superstars the previous offseason.
Unfortunately, he wore out his welcome pretty fast in Los Angeles after joining the new-look Lakers as he was unable to live up to the expectations that came with his role. His field goal percentage stood at 39 percent while his three-point percentage dropped to 35% in his 26 games in the purple and gold.
Beasley completely fell out of the rotation once the Lakers got deeper into the playoffs and now experts are seriously wondering what his future in the NBA will look like. He's been quite vocal about how he's feeling after the season and how his performances were and he knows what improvement must be made.
Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports believes that a number of teams may still look to make a run at the 26-year-old guard and most are from the Eastern Conference.
"The Hawks registered interest, sources said, and explored a package of Beasley and Vanderbilt for John Collins. The Knicks were another team that called about Beasley, sources said, attempting to land Beasley and Vanderbilt in a deal that would have sent out Evan Fournier."
"New York also eyed Beasley in 2020, when he was a restricted free agent, and that was before Gersson Rosas, then the Timberwolves president who awarded Beasley a four-year, $60 million contract, joined the Knicks as a senior basketball adviser. Perhaps Cleveland, in search of wing shooting, would be keen on discussing a deal for Beasley. Portland had shown interest in Beasley as well, sources said."
(Via Yahoo Sports)
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