The Indiana Pacers are rolling these days, working with a 16-1 record and leading both the Eastern Conference and the NBA in winning percentage, mainly because of a fantastic mixture of internal development and added depth procured during the offseason.

The Miami Heat? It’s fair to say they’re rolling as well, despite a mild three-quarter scare against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday. The Heat did not hire a celebrated heady type over the 2013 offseason to add to their depth, in the vein of 2011 acquisition Shane Battier or 2012 acquisition Ray Allen. The team, mindful of its luxury tax issues, even waived playoff hero Mike Miller over the offseason, and probably won’t be adding a player midseason as they did last year with Chris “Birdman” Andersen.

What they did bring in was the top overall pick in the 2007 draft, and the second overall pick in the 2008 draft. While those may seem like fantastic pickups, former high-ranking prospects working just over a half-decade after being drafted into the NBA, understand that the prospects in question are Greg Oden and Michael Beasley. Oden has yet to play a regular season minute after a brief exhibition cameo in October, and Beasley was thought by many to be a lost cause after years of listless play on the court and shameful car and recreational drug habits off the court.

And yet, with help from the Heat coaching staff and with various bits of peer pressure put in place by his two-time champion teammates, Beasley has responded. Michael Beasley, that loping lost cause, is actually having a fantastic season in 2013-14.

Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, without patting himself on the back (honestly), credits Miami’s culture and attitude for turning things around. After years on chaotic Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns teams, Beasley needed to re-learn accountability (even calling it a “re-learn” is giving him quite a bit of credit) before the Heat could get into chiding him for that defense, rebounding, shot selection … everything, really.

From Ira Winderman at the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

"With Michael," Spoelstra said, "it was more about, initially, we felt he was part of our family. We drafted him. We spent a lot of time with him, not only during those two regular seasons, but during the offseasons and we just wanted to open up our arms back into our family.

"That was our initial thought when we talked to him. I didn't even talk role. I didn't even talk specifics about anything. I didn't talk about, 'Hey, you're going to learn from these guys.' It was, 'Hey, come back to the family,' and just get back into the routine and we'll take it from there. After training camp, that's about the first time I really started to talk about a possible role with him."

Beasley was released by the Suns in the first week of September after several off court incidents, and terrible play on the court for a slapdash Suns team that was put together improperly by ex-Suns general manager Lance Blanks. Working on a non-guaranteed, one-year minimum contract with the Miami franchise that originally drafted him (only to deal him two years later for the pittance of a second round pick), it was probably smart of Spoelstra to really not get into the nuts and bolts of Xs and Os diagramming with his recovering young player. Waiting a few weeks for the end of training camp to detail that appears to have been the best move – even if Beasley had a strange exhibition season to follow.

As great as Spoelstra is, though, not all of this can be attributed to the coaching staff working wonders. It’s true that the trade that sent Beasley to Minnesota for that second round pick was mostly a cap-clearing move (in anticipation of signing LeBron James and Chris Bosh as free agents, while re-signing Dwyane Wade), but Beasley didn’t exactly shoot the lights out with the Heat from 2008 to 2010. His stagnant, maddening midrange game wasn’t as frustrating and ineffective as it was in Minnesota and (especially) Phoenix, but that didn’t mean Beasley’s play didn’t betray the promise of a player that averaged over 26 points and 12 rebounds in just 31 minutes a game during his lone year at Kansas State.

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