FanHouse Michael Beasley

It seems like every year the usual suspects are lined up as contenders for the best basketball conference in the country.

Big East. ACC. Pac-10. Big Ten.

But the Big 12 never seems to get much love, despite some impressive numbers that suggest the newest of the major conferences deserve to be part of the conversation. No conference has advanced more teams to Elite Eight (13) and Final Four (six) since 2002. The Kansas Jayhawks even cut down the nets in 2008.

It's not just the young guys like Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers who are expected to show considerably improvement this season with the Miami Heat.

The old guy thinks he'll improve more than anyone else on the roster, making him the determining factor in a better-than-expected season in South Florida.

Center Jermaine O'Neal, going into his 14th NBA season, understands the skepticism, but he also believes there is another All-Star season awaiting him.

FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.

When you're famous, particularly a famous athlete, you're always exactly one step from utter disaster, and one step from rousing success. Michael Beasley has firmly stepped on the former, but the latter is also well within his reach this season.

I don't need to rehash for you the Twitter episode, the questions about whether it was his "stuff" or not, whether that matters, whether the whole issue matters. You've made up your mind.

What you should keep in mind, though, is how quickly a player can go from being considered a "screw-up" or "headcase" to simply a terrific basketball player. And if you don't think Beasley has the talent to make that happen, you better get your head a one way ticket to Straightville on the good train Reason.

In continuing with my sleepers theme, I'm going to give you the lowdown on five small forwards whose value exceeds their average draft position (ADP). The position itself houses three of the top five players in fantasy hoops -- LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Danny Granger. As you'd imagine it's a little top-heavy. That's not to say, however, there's no value to be had.

Many of these swingmen have dual eligibility at either shooting guard or power forward. For this exercise I am going to use the player's "true" position, which in this case is small forward. As a reference I used the ADP's from Mock Draft Central (MDC) and Yahoo! Sports (Y!).

ORLANDO -- Michael Beasley was in the visitor's locker room Wednesday night before Miami's game against the Magic, chattering away with teammates, ball boys and anyone else who wanted to listen, providing advice on everything from cell phones and head phones to defensive matchups and physical conditioning.

He sounded happy again.

After a particularly unhappy summer that included a league-mandated stay in a substance abuse program in Houston, an exaggerated bout with depression, and a self-inflicted social-networking disaster, he looked both relieved and excited that another basketball season was starting.

"I'm anxious, nervous, excited to get back on the court, to doing what I do best,'' he told FanHouse Wednesday night. "I'm back in my sanctuary, where I can put all that other stuff out of my head. It's the only place where I really can get away from it all.''

Heat forward Michael Beasley, 2008's second overall pick who didn't quite live up to expectations his rookie season, has spent the past month in a Houston rehab program at the behest of the NBA due to substance abuse violations last summer. ESPN's Henry Abbott reports that Beasley will be released at the end of the weekend. The Heat begin training camp on Sept. 28.

But Beasley has already been working with Heat coaches while in Houston, according to the Miami Herald's Michael Wallace. Further, teammates including Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem have been in contact with Beasley, letting him know they are ready to support the continuation of his career in Miami.

With any news story, crucial unknown details lead to inflation of attention. Michael Jackson's death was (rightfully) huge news. But the uncertainty about the circumstances has kept it in headlines for weeks. When there's a combination of secrecy and interest, you end with a slow leak of rumors and details, and this can keep a story like Michael Beasley's rehab stint in discussion constantly.

Just in the last two days, TrueHoop's Henry Abbott and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Ira Winderman reported a new detail: Beasley was already taking part in an outpatient treatment program stemming from his 2008 rookie camp incident when a violation landed him in a mandatory 30-day inpatient treatment program (where he is now). This is a fact folks with the league and the players union have known since the story first broke ... but we're finding out five days later, sparking a new round of conjecture.

While understanding the need for privacy, I must wonder if there's a better way.

If the NBA's age minimum were raised to 20 or 21, would incoming players be less likely to fall victim to depression or substance abuse? As Michael Beasley begins his apparently (and hopefully) earnest journey toward getting right, is there a case to be made for keeping kids in college another year?

Unfortunately, college life is no cure for depression or dependency. In fact, it's quite the opposite: Beasley might be in a worse situation if the NBA mandated two years of post-high school activity before league admission. Unravel the gilded dressing on our idyllic portrait of the campus life and you'll actually find that college can be a really stressful and unforgiving place ... even for a basketball prodigy.

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.

So after everyone including us freaked out when it broke that Michael Beasley was in rehab following this weekend's Twitter debacle, it turns out that there may not be a man behind the mirror after all. But things might be a little more complicated. Because really, what this story needs more of is confusion and speculation.

According to the Miami Herald, Beasley's rehab session has nothing to do with anything recent and instead has been planned for a while in advance.

The questions about why he's in rehab, then, are going to further more speculation. Fun. Only not. At all.

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