Former Detroit Pistons Malik Beasley has expressed a desire to return to his most recent NBA squad
Now that the Detroit Pistons have officially entered the offseason, President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon finally has some time to process how the last 12 months unfolded. Last summer, Langdon dealt with a fair degree of roster turnover as the team parted ways with a slew of key players in Tim Hardaway Jr., Dennis Schroder and the team’s premier three-point shooter, Malik Beasley.
Beasley’s loss was unlike any other departure considering the 16-point per game scorer was juggling simultaneous gambling investigations from the NBA and the feds. Given that tenuous circumstance, the Pistons opted not to bring Beasley back for another season, and the team was forced to find a replacement for their 41% long-range shooter.
The Pistons ended up bringing in Duncan Robinson to help fill that void, which was a move that paid dividends for Detroit all season long with the veteran sniper starting every game that he was healthy enough for during the regular season and playoffs. But even throughout that time, Beasley hung around as a compelling “what if” situation since the Pistons continued to rank as one of the worst three-point shooting squads in the NBA all year long.
”Obviously, the Beas situation was difficult,” Langdon said during his end of season press conference. “Getting word on it days before free agency and having to pivot, and I thought we pivoted well, but yeah. Losing a type of player like that that was so instrumental to our success of the year before and would have been helpful, but things happen and those those are things you can’t control. You just have to mark the best of it.”
During the regular season, Beasley stayed active with regular workouts in Detroit-area gyms, and the former Piston even received news that the feds were no longer looking into his case. However, Langdon conveyed that Beasley was still under investigation by the NBA during his presser, so the Pistons are not expected to pursue Beasley at this immediate juncture even though the lethal shooter has expressed a preference to return to the Detroit organization. In fact, Beasley was even spotted on vacation in Italy with Jalen Duren and Cade Cunningham, so he obviously still has a close relationship with many within the Pistons' org.
Instead, the two sides are still in a holding pattern with Beasley playing professional basketball for the Santurce Crabbers down in Puerto Rico.
”I can’t comment on that,” Langdon said. “He’s still under investigation.”
But in terms of how the Pistons hope to round out their squad without Beasley in the picture at the moment, Langdon offered a look behind the curtain at what qualities Detroit currently covets.
”I think the more ball handling you can have on the floor the better,” Langdon said. “I think you see these teams that are successful have a lot of players who can initiate, bring the ball up or actually execute in the half-court in terms of getting paint touches and making decisions, I think the more guys like that you have the more difficult it is to guard. So, we’ll look at some of those things and I think just spreading the floor and shooting helps. I think everybody knew that was something we might struggle with a little bit. I think addressing some of those things could help, but again, those things are hard to find and they’re expensive sometimes. Sometimes other teams don’t want to part ways with it.”
Based off that response, it appears clear that Langdon is aware that extra perimeter shooting could have benefited the Pistons during their second round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavs. Frankly, it would have come in handy during their first round series with the Orlando Magic as well, but the Cavs matchup is where a lack of multi-level scoring talent around Cade Cunningham eventually came to a head.
When Cleveland packed the paint to neutralize Cunningham and Duren alike, the Pistons were unable to punish the Cavs with outside shooters who were spread across the floor. Instead, the Cavs defeated the Pistons in a tough seven-game series that has Langdon looking for three-point threats to add during the offseason, though Beasley does not seem to be on that short list for now.
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