Is There 1 More Chapter to the Michael Beasley Story?

After six seasons fraught with drama and mixed efforts, Michael Beasley's future in the NBA is now as uncertain as it's ever been.

The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson reports that, "Michael Beasley definitely won't be back with the Heat, agent Jared Karnes said Tuesday."

"The Heat never made an offer, preferring instead to sign journeyman Shawne Williams, whose career hasn't been nearly as productive as Beasley's," adds Jackson.

However unsurprising the news may be, it likely still comes as a blow to the Kansas State product still trying to find his way. Since Miami selected Beasley with the No. 2 overall pick back in 2008, his road has been a difficult one—including stops with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns that once seemed promising.

Instead of finding a home, Beasley's playing time has decreased in each of his last four seasons. His 2013-14 campaign with the Heat yielded career lows of 7.9 points and 15.1 minutes per contest.

Despite making a career-high 49.9 percent of his field-goal attempts and enjoying an incident-free season, Miami gave up on Beasley for a second time.

Alternative suitors haven't exactly been clamoring to give the 25-year-old another chance.

USA Today's Sam Amick reported in August that the Los Angeles Lakers recently watched Beasley work out for a second time, feeding speculation that general manager Mitch Kupchak just might roll the dice on the forward's undeniable upside.

"With no teams showing considerable interest in Beasley at this point in time, the Lakers have all the leverage if any negotiations take place," writes LakersNation.com's Ryan Ward. "The selling point would likely be playing time and the opportunity to prove he's worth a lucrative contract."

At this point, that's really the most Beasley can ask for.

His most productive season came in 2010-11 with the Timberwolves, when he averaged 19.2 points and 5.6 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game. After a second season in Minnesota in which those numbers plummeted, Beasley's next best hope was resurrecting his career with the Suns—a team who was in hot pursuit during the summer of 2012.

Phoenix signed Beasley to a lucrative three-year deal worth $18 million.

A year later, the organization decided to go in a different direction.

The Arizona Republic's Paul Coro reported at the time (via USA Today) that, "Faced with owing him $9 million of guaranteed contract, the Suns escaped the failed Beasley experiment with a buyout...that emphasizes a character standard which was overlooked last year and saves the club $2 million in salary and even more in cap hits for the next two years."

As Coro noted, "His on-court regression might have been enough to cut ties but an early August arrest for marijuana possession in his car was intolerable."

"Beasley was previously under Scottsdale police's investigation for a sexual assault accusation during the season," Coro added. "Two weeks later, he was cited for speeding, driving on a suspended license and driving without a license plate or registration."

"Obviously, we're disappointed he didn't have more success here," team president Lon Babby told reporters at the time. "We went into the relationship with our eyes open and understood the calculated risks we were taking. Those risks turned out to work against us. There comes a point that the maintenance of our highest standards was paramount."

It's hard to know exactly how much to make of Beasley's various personal and legal affairs, but there's little doubt his maturity has been a constant source of criticism over the years. It becomes difficult to discern where his off-court liabilities end and his on-court struggles begin.

Before things came to an end in Phoenix, then-head coach Alvin Gentry explained as much even while attempting to defend Beasley.

"It's all a process with him," Gentry told Grantland.com's Zach Lowe at the time. "There are just a lot of things—some on-court stuff, some off-court stuff. He's had a great attitude. It's just one of those situations where he has to continue to work at it, to continue to explore what does he have to do to be successful—not just on the court, but off the court. He'll continue to work at it. He's had a great attitude."

And if any team could take advantage of that attitude, surely it would be Miami—the organization that once drafted him with such high expectation.

As NBCSports.com's Brett Pollakoff notes, "The franchise was hopeful that the familiarity there, along with the strong locker room presence that the championship team possessed would be enough to help him turn things around."

Instead, Beasley's career now seems to have hit rock-bottom. While he somehow managed to spend a season in Miami unscathed by any off-court distractions, he never made a compelling impression on the court.

Jackson reported in August that, "A person with direct knowledge cited several reasons for the Heat's lack of interest: Inconsistency, lack of trust in his defense (and ability to execute the Heat's defensive system), and maturity/focus issues, which are still a concern even though he improved somewhat in that regard last season."

Some of those issues apparently riled LeBron James himself.

"NBA sources said James was not pleased with Beasley's focus and he lost the confidence of coach Erik Spoelstra shortly into the season," wrote The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn in June. "In one sequence that typified his career, Beasley swooped in for a tip-dunk in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. On the Spurs' next possession, Beasley got lost on a pick-and-roll, allowing Diaw an open 3-pointer, which of course he swished."

With negative reviews following Beasley once again, finding another gig won't be easy. There remains enough latent talent to probably command an inexpensive one-year deal from a team in search of answers, but even that scenario is hardly a given.

Basketball Insiders' Alex Kennedy reported via Twitter in July that, "Several teams have expressed interest in free agent Michael Beasley. Teams like the efficiency and maturity he showed last season in Miami."

A month later, however, the Lakers remain the only team that's concretely demonstrated any of that interest. And suffice it to say, Beasley remains without a contract.

He still has youth on his side, along with a rare skill set that incorporates a fairly refined combination of inside and outside scoring. 

But Michael Beasley is dangerously close to finishing his career in the NBA Development League or overseas. If he has one more chapter in the NBA, he'll have to start writing it soon—and he'll have to make it count.