Top Prospect: Michael Beasley | badgerfan07's Blog

With the NBA Draft coming up, I want to take a look at some of the top prospects in this years draft. I want to go over how I think a few of these players will translate into the NBA.

First guy I want to talk about is Michael Beasley. I took a look at Beasley and got a chance to watch him a few times this year, and I got a chance to watch the guy I want to compare him to.

The guy that, in my opinion, Michael Beasley best compares to is Marvin Williams. Williams, for those of you who don't remember was on the 04-05 North Carolina National Championship team. These two guys are not only comparable with their size(height and weight) but also their numbers could have been comparable. Now, I know Marvin was the 6th man on that UNC team but, Marvin was an important part of that Tar Heels team.

Beasley put up some big numbers at Kansas State as a matter of fact he averaged: 36 minutes per game. 26.2 points per game and 12.4 rebounds per game. Meanwhile at North Carolina Williams put up ok numbers with 22 minutes per game, 11.3 points per game and 6.6 minutes per game.

Now, I looked at how I thought Marvin Williams would have done if he would have gotten Beasley-esque playing time and what I came up is that Williams wouldn't necessarily have similar numbers but, they would be comparable. That's important because I think these two guys are pretty much identical players.

Both of these guys are in that 6'9" to 6'10" and 230 pounds range. What were some of the huge knocks on Marvin Williams heading into the NBA Draft in 2005? One of them was he didn't really have a position to play....was he power forward or a small forward? That I think is going to be a huge problem for Beasley. Beasley is going to be a tough matchup in the NBA much like Williams can be he just needs to find a position and grow into it....if he really wants to be a power forward put on some weight and work on his inside game more, or if he wants to be a small forward work more on his mid-range game.

What was another knock on Marvin Williams? That he should have stayed another year to gain more playing time and just polish himself up as an overall baskeball player. Obviously for Beasley he wouldn't have needed to stay at K-State to gain more playing time, but, he does need to polish himself up as an overall basketball player. Beasley much like Williams was way too reliant on their overall athleticism as a freshman in college, which you're not going to be able to do in the NBA.

I think just like Marvin Williams, Beasley will be taken very high in the Draft. What are your thoughts on Beasley?