Michael Beasley wasn’t sure he wanted to talk – let alone look into his Western Conference crystal ball again.



The Lakers small forward was leaving his team’s latest preseason shoot-around recently and heading for the bus, and yours truly lodged a late interview request to discuss this new landscape with LeBron James in the fold. Beasley is a little wary of media types these days, especially after the ESPN interview on media day in which – as he sees it – his perspective about the Lakers’ postseason prospects was turned into a punchline.



The 29-year-old has heard all the noise about this team, how people see LeBron and this band of misfits and can’t quite figure out where to handicap their ceiling or, for that matter, their floor. Yet reluctantly, he agreed to pontificate – again.



“To elaborate on what I was saying (on media day), if we take it a day at a time, and if we work as hard as we know...