Being able to score doesn’t really help when your work ethic is constantly criticized and you can’t stay away from trouble off the court. Michael Beasley may have played his last NBA game for the Phoenix Suns (and maybe at all for the time being) after his latest set of problems with the law, with the team likely to use the stretch provision in order to minimize their losses.

Beasley was arrested and later released for possession of Marijuana. It doesn’t really matter what your views are on the legality of the matter: Beasley has been in trouble time and time again due to his love for weed, even though he promised in the past that this issue is over for him. Maybe if this happened in a different state or in Uruguay, nothing would have happened, but Beasley should really know better.

The Suns are now likely to release him, but they have a chance of making it hurt less than it would have. Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, if a player is waived before August 31 (and his contract was signed before the current CBA took effect), the team cutting him loose is still on the hook for the guaranteed portion of the deal, which in Beasley’s case is $9 million — six million this season, three million the next. The club can stretch those payments out, however, over twice the number of years remaining on the contract, plus one.

In Beasley’s case? That would mean $9 million over five years, and at a cost of $1.8 million a season, the Suns should really take up this option. Beasley seems to be considered a bad influence on the younger players on the team and the complete opposite of the culture the Suns are trying to re-install in the franchise.

He has played one season for the team, averaging 10.1 points while shooting a career low 40.5% from the field. After five seasons in the league, Beasley is showing again and again how smart the Bulls were to take Derrick Rose and not him with the number one pick in the 2008 draft.

Image: Source