Yahoo Sports reports that the Memphis Grizzlies have agreed to terms with free agent Michael Beasley on a non-guaranteed deal.
Beasley, 25, played 55 games with the Miami Heat last season, averaging 7.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, which is actually a better mark than Tayshaun Prince had last season, when he started most games for Memphis. The Grizzlies have made a name for themselves as the land of misfit toys. Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, James Johnson, they all had bad reputations going into Memphis, and went on to have success.
The Heat, who drafted Beasley, and brought him back, didn't want him back for a litany of reasons. He's a head case, unprofessional, struggles defensively, and is a risk, given his history, of getting tagged under the NBA's anti-drug policy. The odds of him even making the team seem slim given his history. But Memphis has a solid rotation of guys and can afford to take a flyer on him for training camp to see if he can find something special like other guys have.
Memphis needs wing help, even with adding Vince Carter, Courtney Lee, and Jordan Adams in the last year. They could also use a small-ball four to fill in behind Zach Randolph and Jarnell Stokes. He makes sense. If he wasn't, you know, Michael Beasley, this would bea pretty great pickup. It costs them nothing, and with a locker room as sound as theirs, there's a chance... a small, dim, fading, desperate chance... that this could actually work.