[...] At the other guard spot, McCollum's replacement will be Beaubois, a player who got back to his best over the last couple of EuroLeague seasons with Valencia after a mid-career wobble, one not helped by injuries. Small though he may be, Beaubois is a furiously efficient scorer (.611% true shooting last year) on a high volume (11.7 points in 19.7 minutes per game), coming on a steady barrage of spot-ups, pull-ups and attacks into the trees. Efes need improved defence from last year, and Beaubois isn't it, but they also needed to find a halfcourt scorer of some note to make up for what they lost in McCollum, and he certainly is that. Better, even. [...]
On a memorable night in late March of his rookie season, Beaubois scored 40 points over the course of 30 minutes in a blowout win over Golden State, hitting 15 of 22 shots and 9 of 11 three pointers a mere couple of weeks after a two 20+ point outings suggested what was possible. An appropriate nickname, 'Roddy Buckets', was quickly formed and stuck. From the depths of the first round, Dallas seemed as though they had found that rarest of beast, a scoring talent so prodigious that he could genuinely change the outcome of a game.
Since then, nothing. Zilch. Nada. As bright as Beaubois's candle burned that month, it never truly burned again. Beaubois has been with the Mavericks in the three years hence, and yet, rather than assume a greater role (particularly with the departures of the comparable Jason Terry and J.J. Barea), Beaubois instead initially underwhelmed in a slightly increased role before falling out of the rotation altogether. Last year, Beaubois appeared in only 45 games, averaged only 12 minutes per contest, shot only 37% from the floor, and averaged only 4 points.
The Heat were said to be interested in Beaubois for training camp this season, but the signing was stymied by a wrist injury. Despite the drop-off, he still yields NBA attention, but the fact remains that so soon after scoring 40 points per game and being the future, Beaubois is now out of the league.
Players generally don't lose their skills that quickly at that age unless a serious injury or an unexpected mishap accelerates it. Beaubois has twice had foot surgery, the impact of which we can only assume to have been significant. That said, you don't go from being a 50-40-80 guard at 21-years-old with a PER of 18.5 to a 25-year-old with a PER of 10.6 riding the bench behind a 37 year old Mike James without losing your way somewhere.
The departures of Terry and Barea may not have been as beneficial to Beaubois as one would expect. Beaubois often paired with them in his early days, and while this made for a very small backcourt, it also made for a quick one that allowed Beaubois to not have to worry about point guard duties and just cut loose offensively. Given the freedom to slash, cut and shoot without being a defensively focused, Beaubois thrived.
However, upon Barea's departure, Beaubois had to assume more of a point guard role. Barea has never been the purest of point guards but he's always been a better one than Beaubois, whose decent assist/turnover ratio belies his ineffectiveness in the role. And whilst Jason Terry in his Dallas days was no more of a point guard than Roddy, Terry could pair with Jason Kidd on account of his quality jumpshot.
But Beaubois, for whatever reason, lost his shot. This, combined with Kidd's inability to penetrate, made for an easy enough player to defend. Once paired with Kidd, a defense could nullify Beaubois with a quicker defender he couldn't shoot over, and if paired with anyone else, Beaubois had to play the point to create for himself and everyone. And he couldn't do it.
In short, Beaubois went from a dynamic penetrator, isolator, open-court finisher and eclectic off-the-ball scorer, to makeshift point guard who couldn't get to the rim like he once could, struggled from outside, had no mid-range game, who suffered from injuries, lost his confidence, and with it all his effectiveness. The cult of Buckets didn't last long.
There is plenty of hope for Beaubois still. He needs a clean bill of health, for one, and to work with a shooting coach to restore the jumper whose absence has crippled his scoring effectiveness. He then needs to find the confidence in his game, and the right situation in which to maximize it. Miami could be it, but so could Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Golden State and others.
Wherever he winds up, it won't be a moment too soon. The NBA misses Roddy Buckets.
The final year of Jason Terry's contract is only partially guaranteed. Only $5 million of $10,658,000 is guaranteed; the rest becomes guaranteed dependent on how many minutes Terry plays. Terry's contract will become guaranteed if he plays in more than 60 games and more than 1,500 minutes next year; if he doesn't, and he's waived before next July 15th, then whoever owns him could get a break of a few million dollars.
I'm telling you this because Boobwar is making Terry available.
