Bouncin' Around: Wade Will Think Twice About Staying With Beasley

Bouncin' Around is NBA FanHouse's weekly insider notebook.

This is not good for forward Michael Beasley. And it's REALLY not good if you're the Miami Heat trying to convince Dwyane Wade that they are serious about building a championship team around him.

No, this is real bad.

Beasley, who checked himself into a rehab clinic last week because of depression and substance-abuse issues, suddenly looks like the elephant in the franchise room as Wade ponders where his future will be.

Everything the Heat have done the last two years -- creating salary cap space for next summer, hiring a coach he likes, stroking him at every turn -- has been done to increase the likelihood that he will happily re-sign with the Heat when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July.

If you're Wade today, you're quietly beginning to wonder.

A few weeks ago, the only real debate in South Florida was whether Beasley should be playing power forward or small forward -- a good issue to have -- or whether they should trade him to Utah for Carlos Boozer.

Now the debate is what to do with him -- literally. His recent problems have made him untradeable. And the question is whether he'll be in any kind of shape, mentally or physically, and whether he'll even be available, when training camp opens at the end of next month.

Any way you present it, he doesn't help the franchise look attractive, to either Wade, or the other free agent (i.e., Chris Bosh) the Heat are hoping to add alongside Wade next summer.

Beasley, the richly talented but increasingly quirky forward, was a risky pick when the Heat made him the No. 2 selection of the 2008 Draft, but he flashed enough All-Star potential last season to cover up the warts and make the Heat feel good about his progress.

All that is out the window now. Is he still a foundation piece that will help convince Wade to stay? Hardly. He looks more like a liability they can't shake at least until he starts playing effectively again.

If Wade wants to chase another championship, his best choice now would not be alongside Beasley, no matter how talented he is.

Most Improved Team

If you believe people who have seen Gilbert Arenas play this summer, the Washington Wizards are shaping up as the most improved team in the league. Both coach Flip Saunders and teammate Caron Butler have raved about him, believing he once again can become a dominating player.

The Wizards won only 19 games last season, mostly because they were beset by injuries, most notably Arenas, whose surgically-repaired knees limited him to just 15 games in the last two seasons combined.

"He was looking like his old self,'' Butler said during a Q&A with WashingtonWizards.com. "He looked great. You can expect great things from Agent Zero.''

The return of center Brendan Haywood, who played only six games last season, along with the addition of Mike Miller and Randy Foye, will give the Wizards a very dangerous offensive team. Antawn Jamison and Butler will join Miller, Arenas and Haywood in the high-scoring lineup.

They might not stop the more physical teams in the league, but a lot of teams won't be able to keep up their scoring pace.

"I think the Wizards really are getting overlooked,'' said Stan Van Gundy, coach of the defending Eastern champion Magic. "They're going to be greatly improved. If you look at the lineup they can put out there, and with guys coming off the bench, they're loaded.''

Sadly Moving On

Zydrunas Ilgauskas always figured he would finish his NBA career where he started it -- in Cleveland.

He has meant a lot to the Cavaliers since he arrived in 1997, overcoming a serious foot injury that almost ended his career and robbed him of two seasons. He went through the tough times in Cleveland, and he hoped to be there to enjoy the good times when LeBron James eventually leads them to an NBA title.

It's not going to happen now.

When the Cavaliers acquired Shaquille O'Neal this summer, it meant Ilgauskas become more valuable for his contract than what he could contribute on the court. He has an expiring contract worth $11 million this season, making him a good candidate to be dealt before the trade deadline to a team looking to clear cap space for next summer. It might be a opportunity for the Cavs to land a few more pieces to help bring the championship to Cleveland.

It's the business side of basketball.