Shouldn’t we focus on Zach LaVine?

Chicago probably wants to use Lavine in a trade to get a Beal type, not a tank type trade, just from what I've seen.

Yeah I'd like Lavine on this squad though.

Pretty sure Beal signed an extension last year and has multiple years remaining.

He's a high usage player (as is Beal). If we end up landing the lead guard so many of us feel we need, who gets Loved/Boshed between Lavine/Beal, BI, and Zion?

Do the Pels need a Rondo and a Ray Allen more than a Lavine/Beal type?

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Pretty sure Beal signed an extension last year and has multiple years remaining.

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It was only a two year extension and one was a player option, which he will take.

He's under contract for this year and next year and that is it (assuming he takes the 22-23 Player Option, which he will).

Beal has a player option for 2023. It's $37M but the 2023 season will be his 11th year in the league, so he'd be at that 10 year mark to sign a max contract worth over $220M, and i would think he would want that type of guaranteed maximum contract signed asap. No point in risking a year of play. AD didn't even want to risk a year and wait until his 10th year to sign that 5 year contract. By doing so he gave up about $30M signing that 5 year contract this offseason instead of playing under a 1 year deal and then signing the 5 year max.
Beal signed his extension with the idea that he would be a free agent after that 10 year mark so he could sign a max contract.

I wish it were that simple though. You can feel as confident as you want about him wanting an extra $7 million over four years and extra 5th year, but if he’s not confirming he will extend, the majority of teams will not trade their entire future for him. Us included, though I think we make a solid offer in between and cross our fingers.

It's not like we are some scrub team that shouldn't be good.
You think the Magic have the potential to be as good as us if they get Beal? If they had to get rid of Isaacs and Anthony what are they left with? Fultz/Vucevic as the main two on the team?

We can keep BI and Zion and still have the assets to get Beal, and there isn't a better combo to match him with than that. Russell/Towns maybe, but i think most people would choose BI/Zion over them. I think the Bulls would feel confident they could attract another big name in FA to fit with Lavine and Beal in order to keep Beal there.
The Hawks have Trae and that's enough.
I can't see why the Bulls, Wolves, Hawks, or us would be afraid of Beal leaving if we traded for him.

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Shouldn’t we focus on Zach LaVine?

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Big no for me.

He's an empty stat guy, he does not make the teams he plays on any better, and arguably worse.

I feel like LaVine’s name comes up every few months as a trade target because people just look at his raw stats and think he’s a good player. It’s been discussed ad nauseam here, but it needs to be said again: LaVine is not a winning basketball player, he’s a stat padder on bad teams.

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Both show defensive capabilities but minimal desire for it.

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This is only partially true. The reason that people are so intrigued by Beal is because he’s shown flashes in the past of being a pretty good defender, but only seems to do it in crunch moments. I don’t think LaVine has ever shown that ability. Beal has also shown that he might be able to expand into more of a facilitator, which is also very intriguing. He has already shown that doesn’t turn the ball over nearly as often as LaVine while producing nearly the same assist numbers. The advanced stats seem to back Both of those observations up too:

Beal has career a DRtg of 111, but that has been weighed down by the last couple seasons when the Wizards really fell off the map. Before that, he averaged a 107 his first 6 years in the league. He has 14.7 career DWS, and averaged over 2 DWS a season in the first 6 years. Now he does average -0.8 DBPM a year, but at least has posted a couple positive scores in a couple of seasons. Finally, Beal has a career ast% of 19.3 and a career tov% of 10.8. What’s more interesting is in the last few seasons, his Ast% has gone way up with an average of 24.8% the last 3 seasons, but his tov% has roughly stayed the same at 11%.

Now compare that to LaVine who has a career DRtg of 113, but has never posted a DRtg better than 110. Has a career 5 DWS, has never posted a positive DBPM, with an average -1.6. Further, LaVine’s career ast% of 20, but has a 13.8 tov%.

If you really want to know who’s better, consider that LaVine has a career VORP of 4. In 2018-2019, Beal posted a VORP of 3.7.

With all of that said, no one should want LaVine on this team, you just can’t win with him. Now if you are arguing that you believe that Beal is also not someone you can win with, you could be right, and this thread is much more interesting. But at the end of the day, Beal has shown that he is much more likely to be able to be the 2nd/3rd best player on a championship team than LaVine.