Amid a probe by the U.S. District Attorney’s office into alleged gambling activities by Pistons free agent guard Malik Beasley, Detroit is mulling a different approach this offseason, Grant Afseth reports in an RG.org story.
Talks between the Pistons and Beasley have stalled, despite previous momentum on a multiyear deal, according to Afseth’s sources. Beasley, who was one of the league’s premier three-point shooters and reserves this past season, had been in “serious talks” on a three-year, $42MM contract to remain in Detroit, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Along with the gambling allegations, Beasley is also dealing with lawsuit by his former agent, Daniel Hazan, over a financial dispute tied to a marketing advance, according to Afseth.
The Pistons are gauging the trade market on Simone Fontecchio, who has an expiring $8.3MM contract, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. A Fontecchio trade could allow the Pistons to open up $24MM in cap space if they lose two of their other top free agents, Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Opening up that cap room would help the Pistons pursue two other free agents they like — the Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker and the Hawks’ Caris LeVert. However, the Hawks are also pursuing Alexander-Walker and exploring a possibility of retaining LeVert. Afseth hears that the Hawks are the favorite to land the Minnesota free agent, while the Pistons are trending toward being the favorite to land LeVert. Atlanta is also among the teams in the mix for Grizzlies guard Luke Kennard.
Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon has a history with LeVert, Afseth notes (Twitter link). Langdon served as assistant GM for the Nets in 2016 when they drafted LeVert.
Why would any NBA player who already makes Million$ of dollar$ risk it all by gambling???? I don’t get it, but there’s a lot of things I don’t get about what’s happening in our society today.
Shameful to say the least and if it turns out Beasley did indeed bet on NBA games he deserves whatever punishment he receives
Beasley doesn’t seem the most level-headed guy out there. Some years ago he also spent some time in jail after pointing a riffle at a family outside his home.
Compared to Michael Beasley, Malik is a saint, so at least there’s that?
Malik seems to have grown up a lot on and off court the past few years and was positive in locker room and community with Detroit. He had been vocal since 2nd month of the season he wanted to stay in DET long term.
OBV the investigation is alarming, and it’s gonna get ugly probably at times. But we’ve seen a number of these investigations, even in NBA, that led to nothing more than rumor mill fodder and were based on more than what this investigation appears to be
An interesting note about this investigation is that it centers around a 2023/24 (Jan 24 I think?) NBA game where there was SIGNIFICANT movement on a Beasley under 2.5 rebounds game prop, enough that it moved a line like 400 points (+200 to -250 or whatever it was). What makes me think this has less to do with Beasley and more to do with a much larger investigation around NBA people is that Beasley finished with 6 rebounds…so if he was involved in gambling himself, or affected by insiders gambling, he probably wouldn’t have LOST all of those people tons of money in such a big way
I think Beasley will be cleared, but it will be another domino in a grand scheme of things investigation going on with insiders and gambling partners & platforms with NBA
Move on from Beasley. LaVert is a solid replacement. Don’t need the noise around the team. Pistons made big strides last year. Let the negativity go …. Bye bye just move on.
How is Levert a solid replacement when he doesn’t do the one thing that Beasley gave the Pistons, the one thing they haven’t had: 3 point shooting.
Levert is a poor 3 pt shooter. His offense is redundant with Ivey and he’s only getting worse as a defender as he ages.
He is good piece on a number of playoff teams, but I don’t think that includes Detroit, especially if DET loses Hardaway Jr &/or Schroder. They’d lose their 3 best 3-point shooters and replace them with an aging slasher who can’t shoot from deep.
Levert: Career 34% from 3 and never made 2+ threes per game in any of his 9 seasons
He’s shot over 39% from 3 only one time in those 9 years, and it was on 1.6 makes per game.
He’s NOT a replacement for Beasley. Or for Hardaway JR or Schroder for that matter
Wait it’s not legal to gamble on sports! And here I though ESPN wasn’t operating a shameless illegal gambling ring.