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Miami Heat: 15 best draft picks in franchise history

By Bryan Toporek

MIAMI, FL - APRIL 21: Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat brings the ball up the court in the third quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers during Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Arena on April 21, 2018 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Dwyane Wade
MIAMI, FL - APRIL 21: Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat brings the ball up the court in the third quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers during Game Four of Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Arena on April 21, 2018 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Dwyane Wade /
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Michael Beasley, Miami Heat
(Photo by Scott Cunningham/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Career stats with Miami: 238 GP, 12.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 46.4 FG%, 33.2 3FG%, 78.3 FT%

To this day, Michael Beasley remains the only top-three pick in Heat history. While it’s unfair to deem him a total bust — he’s no Anthony Bennett — it is fair to say he only scraped the surface of his potential in both Miami and the NBA as a whole.

After putting up 26.2 points on 53.2 percent shooting and 12.4 rebounds per game during his lone season at Kansas State, Beasley looked like a can’t-miss prospect heading into the 2008 draft. Though the Chicago Bulls jumped over them during that year’s lottery, getting the second-best player in a presumed two-superstar draft was one heck of a consolation prize for the Heat.

Before Beasley even made his NBA debut, however, the league fined him $50,000 for his involvement in an incident at the Rookie Transition Program. That wound up being a fitting encapsulation of his professional career, as repeated off-court troubles (often involving marijuana) derailed whatever progress he made on the court.

Beasley averaged 14.3 points on 46.1 percent shooting and 5.9 rebounds per game during his first two seasons in Miami, even starting all 78 games as a sophomore. When LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided to join Dwyane Wade down in South Beach in the summer of 2010, however, the Heat had to salary-dump Beasley to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for a pair of second-round picks.

Beasley found his way back to the Heat three years later, as the defending back-to-back champions were looking to bolster their wing depth on the cheap. His per-game averages unsurprisingly dipped compared to his first two seasons in Miami—James, Wade and Bosh gobbled up a grand majority of the team’s offseason possessions—but he shot 49.9 percent overall and 38.9 percent from deep to help the team get to its fourth straight NBA Finals.

Beasley stayed one more season in Miami after James departed for Cleveland, but he has since bounced around to the Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks. Though he’s carved out a 10-year NBA career, he’s been nowhere near as productive as the Heat likely expected when they took him second overall a decade ago.

Next: No. 9

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