NBA Trade Rumors: Michael Beasley's Future with T-Wolves Hinges on Next 6 Weeks

Michael Beasley is still a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves—for now.

One of the hottest names in trade rumors was almost dealt in a three-team deal according to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The deal would have sent Beasley to the Lakers, a first-round pick from LA to Portland and Jamal Crawford to the Wolves. The potential trade collapsed only because the Wolves didn’t want to also take on Derek Fisher’s $3.4 million player option for next season according to Zgoda.

In other words, GM David Kahn was more than willing to let him go for more help at guard.

Beasley will become an unrestricted free agent this summer unless the Wolves want to guarantee an $8 million qualifying offer, to have the right to match any offer he potentially would receive. The odds of that happening are about as good as Ricky Rubio magically healing in time for the playoffs.

When asked about his future with the team, Kahn had a telling answer:

"

I think it's very important these next six weeks that he continue that path and demonstrate to the league that maybe some of the things people have said about him frankly have been eradicated because I think in large part they have.

"

Hmmm.

“Demonstrate to the league” means he's essentially going to audition for the other 29 teams for the remainder of the season.

Beasley clearly isn’t a good fit for this team. He asked coach Rick Adelman for more playing time off the bench, and the head coach told him he needed to rebound and play better defense.

With Kevin Love and Derrick Williams in town, Beasley will never be more than a guy that comes off the bench to shoot in bunches and play less than stellar defense.

Beasley has made terrific strides in the past year in shedding his reputation. That’s not the problem. He is simply not the right fit for Minnesota at this point.

So maybe Beasley ends up in LA after all—just a little bit later then when most people expected. 

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