Michael Beasley is an incredibly talented, and very good player. He's got a nose for the game, is a rebounding savant, and he's very competitive on the court. But he's not going to win a Championship (as I said in the my previous Blog Entry).

First of all, how many 6'9" power forwards have carried their teams to Championships? Does one exist? He's got a size advantage in college, but that's going to immediately disappear in the pros. He's about average for a 4. Dudes who carry their teams to titles are usually slightly larger than average-size for their position. Size is incredibly important in the NBA, it allows players to impose their will in the clutch. Smallish players can accumulate statistics, but in the closing minutes any size deficiency becomes magnified because the opponents are going 100%. Again, Beasley isn't small, but he certainly isn't big, either.

Then there's his personality. As I mentioned, he's competitive on the court, but that's not the only thing that matters. Practice is hugely important too, and from the stories I've read Beasley has the work ethic of an anemic Jerome James. He's not a criminal, but he is a borderline sociopathic who thought that covering his school in graffiti was a harmless prank. One of the trademark characteristics of champions in all sports (in addition to being a practice-hound) is a certain kind of low self-esteem, where they play hard out of a desperate need to not let their teammates down. Do you get that sense from Michael Beasley?

Beasley's the kind of guy who could win a Championship if he were a role-player (like Haslem was on the Heat), but the problem is that he's too talented for that. He's probably going to be putting up 25-and-12 every night, and any coach who gets him will make him the center of the entire team. That will prevent his team from contending.

Beasley is the next Shareef Abdur-Rahim ... a better version, but you get the point.