The Denver Nuggets have quite the collection of talented young guards. Tim Connelly and his staff selected a 20-year old point guard with the seventh overall pick in consecutive drafts when they took Emmanuel Mudiay and Jamal Murray in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
This year, they signed their 23-year old shooting guard, Gary Harris, to a four year $84 million extension. The oldest of the group, Will Barton, is just 26 and has the back up shooting guard role locked down.
That’s a lot of talent and youth in the back court. So much talent, that it makes it easy to forget about Denver’s 19th overall pick in the 2016 draft – yet another guard: Malik Beasley.
“It’s probably going to be tough for Malik to get consistent minutes to be quite honest. Just because of the fact that you have Gary Harris, you have Will Barton—Emmanuel, Jameer (Nelson), Jamal. But what I like about Malik is that when I throw him out there. He’s gonna be ready.”
That’s what coach Michael Malone told reporters after practice back in mid-October. It was clear that Malone is high on Beasley, particularly his work ethic. He stressed multiple times that Beasley is a guy who will do everything in his power to stay ready should an unexpected opportunity to present itself.
“(He) showed in the last two games against Dallas and OKC that he’s an NBA player…it may not happen for him this year.” Malone explained. “But Malik’s work ethic and his mental toughness will allow him to take advantage of any opportunity that’s given to him when that time comes.”
The coach probably didn’t expect that time to come so soon. Juancho Hernangomez, who has filled the role of back up small forward, has been sidelined since the 23rd with mononucleosis. This has required Will Barton to take on some of Juancho’s lost minutes at the three.
With Jameer Nelson having been waived in order to make room for recent signee Richard Jefferson someone has to step up and grab some minutes at shooting guard. Less than a month after Malone’s comments, Beasley has moved into the rotation.
When asked if Beasley has changed his approach to the game due to the sudden change in playing time, he denied it categorically, echoing his coach’s description of his attitude towards the game:
“No…I just want to make sure I’m ready…whether it’s 2 minutes or 15 minutes, I just have to be ready to go.”
It’s hard to gauge the extent to which Beasley has made an impact thus far. We’re only 10 games into the season and Malik is averaging just 9.6 minutes per game. To call this a small sample size would be an understatement. But if we go to the film, we can see glimpses of why Malone is so high on the 20-year old.
At Summer League, Malik was the go-to option on offense. While Beasley isn’t a point guard by nature, he was allowed to take the ball up the court and had the green light to create shots for himself. He averaged 19.4 points per game and took 95 field goal attempts in five appearances. He finished the tournament with a field goal percentage of 40 percent.
Beasley doesn’t have that same green light at the NBA level and he knows it. To maximize his impact on the court he has to minimize his shot attempts and stay busy on the glass and the defense end.
During his first game in Herangomez’ absence Beasley played seven minutes. He only took one shot, a wide open three from the right wing, and nailed it.
He isn’t exactly a noted marksman from deep, though he does posses the ability to stretch the floor a little. It’s best if Beasley minimizes hits shots, but he has the green light on wide open attempts like this one:
It’s important to for a shooting guard to be able to knock that down, but it’s more important for someone in Beasley’s position to know his role. In Wednesday’s game against Toronto, he took a season high seven shot attempts and launched three triples in 12 minutes. He did hit three of those shots, but he finished with a season low -19 in the box score.
It was a game in which Denver was in control from start to finish, and they had a large cushion in the fourth. But Beasley’s minutes and shot attempts came during a brutal defensive stretch in the final minutes of the game, one that provoked the ire of coach Malone.
Obviously, the game was well in hand, but Beasley’s best of chance of staying in Malone’s favor is by focusing on the little things; defensive tenacity and effort on the glass off the bench.
He did those things well in a road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on October 27th. Beasley collected three defensive rebounds; one of which he was in position for because he made the correct rotation on help defense. Another because he recognized his man was out of the play and drifted down to help on the glass, and a third thanks to multiple efforts among the trees of both teams.
After a practice, Beasley revealed that the staff has given him some positive feedback on his defensive effort. Malone has lauded his upside on that end of the court in the past, saying Beasley “could be a very good defender at the NBA level someday.”
In this clip from the Atlanta game, watch how Beasley quickly recognizes the offensive personnel as he’s brought into a pick and roll as the on-ball defender.
Bazemore isn’t a huge threat when pulling up off the dribble for three, so Beasley fights under, fully aware of Bazemore’s propensity to attack the rim. He shuffles his feet, keeps his hands vertical and contests the lay up without committing the foul.
It’s plays like these that will earn Beasley playing time this season and that’s not lost on him. “Scoring is gonna be tough…I’m okay with that. So I’ll just stick to what I do. cutting, shooting open shots when I have it. But most of all I’m gonna get out there and just defend.”
That awareness is important. Beasley is playing well and Malone is enamored with his approach for such a young player. But when Hernangomez returns, Beasley will likely be pushed back to the end of the bench. His best shot at carving out a small role in this rotation is by sticking to this approach.
Beasley may not receive many more opportunities to show what he can do this year. For all his talent and hustle, it’s unclear how exactly he fits into this roster. But if unexpected opportunities like this one continue to present themselves, we know this to be true of Malik: he’ll be ready.