Pick the Date! Phoenix Suns likely to have a resolution "in the next week or so" on Michael Beasley

Bright Side of the Sun has been predicting a Beasley release sometime after September 1 since the day after the news broke that Beasley was pulled over again for speeding, and then suspected of possession of illegal drugs.

As with any troubled person you might know, when they get in trouble yet again you're disappointed but not surprised. Beasley did not progress over the past year in laid-back Phoenix with a management team committed to his success. In fact, he regressed into his worst NBA season yet. Maybe the pressure to grow up made him retreat even further into this own brain than ever. Whatever it was, Beasley got worse.

It hasn't been a good few years in the free agency market for the Phoenix Suns. I'll repeat what I wrote above. The Suns will likely be paying Childress and Beasley $13.18 million this year to watch basketball from the sidelines.

By releasing Beasley after September 1, the Suns can eat all $6 million of this season's pay this year without stretching it over 5 years and wishing in 2014 they had just a few more dollars for that role player they need as they rise from the ashes. Or 2017 or even 2018 for that matter. Why make the Beasley pain last 5 more years!??

Now, we're all waiting for the day.

Finally, new Suns GM Ryan McDonough let slip the Suns best-laid plans last week in response to a question about the relationship between the Butler salary dump and Michael Beasley.

"Trading Caron Butler has nothing to do with the Beasley situation," McDonough said to Paul Coro of azcentral.com/sports late last week. "We thought this was a good deal for basketball reasons. I'd imagine over the next week or so we would have resolution (regarding Beasley)."

Sometime in the next week. Meaning, sometime in the first week of September.

Previously, the Suns had been completely tight-lipped about their next action with Beasley. Some people take that as biding their time until the best opportunity arose (ie. after September 1) and not wanting to show their cards too early, while others let their minds wander into dark corners and assume the worst: that Beasley would never be released.

Frankly, I've been of the mind this entire time that Beasley would be released sometime conveniently after September 1, and that the Suns just didn't bother broadcasting it to the nation. I took their silence as simply a preference to DO the right thing over TALKING about doing the right thing. The latter is disingenuous, and potentially damaging to both the team and the player if unexpected twists and turns come about by September 1.

Anyway, now it's just a matter of convenience. Training camp starts in 4 weeks, the season starts in 8 weeks, and the league-year's first paycheck doesn't come for 10 weeks.

Sometime in there, the Suns will most likely release Beasley.

The question is when

• September 1 is a Sunday
  
• September 2 is Labor Day
  
• September 3 is the podcast recording day. Maybe the Suns don't want to give Jim the satisfaction of releasing Beasley before he records the podcast?
• September 4+ is... well, boring and anticlimactic
• October 1 is just before training camp, but enough time to see if anyone wants to take Beasley for anything of value. It's still better to trade Beasley than eat the contract. The Suns traded Butler for the same reason
  
• October 29 is just before players start earning their 2013-14 money, and teams' last chance to change their rosters before their season starts

Let's have a BSotS SUPERCOOL RELEASE DATE contest!

It's your turn to guess the date!

More from Bright Side Of The Sun:

• Capology Update: Phoenix Suns are $5.2 Million Under the Salary Cap after Butler Trade
• Phoenix Suns finally, officially sign #5 overall pick Alex Len
• Channing Frye Update: YEP!
• Phoenix Suns trade for Ish Smith adding point guard depth to the roster replacing the departed Diante Garrett
• Phoenix Philm Study: Suns guard Eric Bledsoe, Part I