From Guadeloupe, With Love: Rodrigue Beaubois
When Donnie Nelson decided to draft Byron Mullens, MFFLs everywhere were thrilled to acquire a young, athletic big man who had lottery written all over him. That same excitement was then quickly replaced by an equal level of displeasure and confusion when the trade was announced for the Thunder’s first round pick, Rodrigue Beaubois.
Beaubois was certainly considered a project, being only 21 years old and not even playing heavy minutes for his French league team Cholet. He barely broke double digits in scoring during his last season overseas, so needless to say, the move was questionable.
Prior to draft day, draftniks labeled his weaknesses with all of the worst adjectives you could think of; Inconsistent, not productive, decision making, and the future NBA player’s worst nightmare: not a true point guard. It’s not like combo guards have had a problem making it in the NBA, but if the Mavs were going to groom him to take over for Jason Kidd, Roddy experience some growing pains.
Fast forward to 2010. Beaubois has managed to start in 13 games for the Maverick this season, averaging 7.2 points and shooting 52.6% from the field. Most of those starts came in November, when a number of Mavericks players were 
out with various ailments. That’s not a diss to RB by any means. Nelson and Carlisle trusted him enough to give him the keys to the offense and play a significant role on a playoff team. Sure, there were many seasoned all-stars surrounding Beaubois, but that doesn’t make his playing time less significant either.
As far as his true position goes, it still appears that Donnie sees him as one of, if not the long term answer to the point guard spot. According to 82games.com, Roddy has played 80% of his minutes at the point this season thus far. Overall, he has only compiled 325 minutes on the season (10.5 per game average), so the numbers may be slightly skewed.
None of this is to say that the guard from Guadeloupe doesn’t still have a long way to go. He certainly does. His development has not been halted in any sort of way, but he has shown somewhat of a lack of floor vision and playmaking ability for teammates. This could be a long term problem for a supposed point guard.
Another one of his knocks was his shooting consistency, or lack thereof. I, for one, can definitely see improvement in this area. In his final season with Cholet, Roddy had percentages of 47/32/58 (FG, 3PT, FT). Currently with the Mavericks, he is standing at (49, 38, 82). Those numbers are staggering for any guard, but especially for a rookie with a supposed shooting issue. Again, those numbers are certainly slightly skewed due to the limited sample size, but the optimism is still warranted.
I want to see Rodrigue Beaubois succeed. He is one of the hardest working players on the team, and he also has a very high ceiling. Any MFFL can see that this team’s window is slowly closing, and maybe only Beaubois will still be around when Dallas cleans house, or buys a whole new house for that matter. His development is vital to the Mavericks jumping back into contention in the long term. With his crazy athleticism and strong defensive instincts, he is well on his way to cementing himself into the Mavs’ future.
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