The circumstances leading up to the Utah Jazz trading Walker Kessler to the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday were not a secret.
The Lakers were desperate for a defensive, rim-running, lob threat of a center to pair with Luka Dončić, and they knew that they were likely to have to pay a hefty price in order to get the right guy considering the available free agents, willing trade partners, and premium on prying away restricted free agents.
The Jazz were in a situation where Kessler and his camp went into the 2025-26 season disgruntled by the lack of an extension prior to the start of the campaign. Despite these frustrations, there was always a chance Kessler would remain with the Jazz, and even find happiness there.
But, the Jazz also knew that while maintaining cap flexibility, they could use Kessler’s 2026 restricted free agency to leverage a big return, should the opportunity present itself.
From the Jazz perspective
Obviously there’s a lot to like about Kessler, his skill and his potential and there will be a lot missed in his departure. But while rose-colored glasses and hopeful thinking are great for the first few years of a player’s career, at the time of a second contract, especially in an RFA situation, a non-tinted, accurate prescription pair of glasses are required.
The Jazz had to face the fact that they were going to be forced to match an offer sheet from opposing teams in order to keep Kessler. And with a team like the Lakers on the hunt and likely willing to overpay in order to keep their star player content and build a competent roster around him, matching would put the Jazz in a precarious situation.
Had the Lakers offered something like $36 million per year for Kessler (not far off the $32.5 million they will pay him on his new deal), and had the Jazz matched that offer, it would have put the Jazz right up against the luxury tax threshold, giving them very little wiggle room for the 2025-26 season, and then putting them into a difficult position down the line.
The Jazz are eventually expected to come to terms with Keyonte George on his next deal, whether that’s an extension agreed to this offseason or a new deal when he enters restricted free agency next year. No matter the timing of that, the Jazz see George as an integral part of the team’s future and his new salary would be on the books for the 2027-28 season.
If the Jazz had kept Kessler on the roster at somewhere near $36 million, then were to give George a sizable raise, they would be so far into the luxury tax they would likely have to choose between the two players as soon as next season.
In theory, Kessler could be very good on a winning team. He’s a terrific rebounder, great on lobs and putbacks, has wonderful footwork and is an exciting young player.
But — and here’s where the non-tinted glasses come into play — once the 2026-27 season begins, Kessler will have not played competitively for nearly an entire calendar year. He has had up and down seasons, he’s coming off a surgery and he doesn’t have any experience playing for a winning team, much less any postseason experience.
So if the Jazz were to match a major, major overpay for Kessler, they would have likely wanted to get off that contract no matter what via trade. Since the Jazz were always going to match, this was always going to be a matter of either the Jazz keeping Kessler on a deal they felt comfortable with, or trading him.
The Lakers, knowing this to be true but still desperate for Kessler, were able to bring the number down a bit from what the Jazz might have had to match, but not without first giving the Jazz future compensation.
So the Jazz create a roughly $15.2 million trade exception and completely decimated the Lakers’ draft capital, getting two unprotected first-round picks (2031 and 2033) and two pick swaps (2028 and 2030) while the Lakers have the privilege and opportunity to pay an unproven, though hopeful, player $130 million over four years.
From the Lakers perspective
LeBron James has yet to decide where he will play basketball for the 2026-27 season, but he did tell the Lakers that it won’t be with them. Without James on the books, the Lakers actually had a lot more cap space to play with in order to make some big swings to build around Dončić.
Let’s be very clear, the Lakers do not want to end up in a situation where they don’t provide Dončić with a good supporting cast and then he starts to look around the league for a team that will actually give him a contending team.
And the clock was already ticking for the Lakers because, while Dončić has three years left on his deal, the third year is a player option. So, if the Lakers didn’t make some substantial moves, after this coming season and then the next season, they could looking at a situation where they lose Dončić for absolutely nothing.
That’s why there was desperation. And not only has Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka coveted Kessler for years, but he fits the exact mold of the kind of player Dončić has been asking for the Lakers to go out and get.
With the remaining room and machinations available to them, the Lakers didn’t stop at adding Kessler to the mix. They have filled out the roster with Collin Sexton (who will enjoy reuniting with former Jazz teammate Kessler), Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili.
Is that better than what they had before with James and will it make for a deeper run? Who knows! Will it be worth the $32.5 million per year for Kessler? Only time will tell!
Will the Lakers at some point feel some buyers remorse or feel handcuffed by not having any tradable first-round picks over the next seven years and only a single pick swap and a second-round pick to their name as far as draft assets go? Well, probably a little.
In all, it’s probably the right thing to do if you’re trying to keep Dončić, who specifically requested an A-list center, happy. Kessler is the kind of defensive-focused rim-runner that the Lakers needed, and now they have him.
From Kessler’s perspective
It’s important to address some of what has been said, circulated and speculated about over the past few weeks and especially today.
There have been quite a few people on social media who have suggested — taking into account California taxes vs. Utah taxes — that Kessler would have made more money per year across the first four years in Utah on the five-year, $140 million deal the Jazz offered in June than he will make per year on his new four-year, $130 million deal, despite the average annual salary of the deals telling a different story.
Frankly, even though I’ve lived in both states, I haven’t been in that kind of a tax bracket, and I don’t know enough about the taxes to say that this is totally true. And, there are other things to take into account like jock taxes, type of living situation, and then if we want to be really semantic, energy costs, cost of travel, etc., etc., etc.
What I can tell you with certainty is that Kessler’s camp made a point of saying throughout the year that this was never about the dollar amount (you can choose not to believe them when they say that, that’s fine). Instead, what they wanted was to feel valued, wanted, treated fairly in negotiations and for there to be a concrete plan toward winning basketball.
Certainly the Jazz would say that they valued Kessler, wanted him on the team for the future, treated all of his representation fairly and that there was a plan to try to win games eventually. The two sides just disagreed on whether that was the case.
But, back to the money.
From Kessler’s perspective, Dončić is obviously a dream of a player to be paired with, and that’s important, because — putting the dollar amount aside — it is the timing and length of the Lakers’ contracts that’s actually really important here.
Kessler’s deal is four years with a player option on the final year, making him guaranteed through the 2028-29 season. Not coincidentally at all, Dončić’s deal runs through the 2028-29 season (with a player option on the final year).
Worst case scenario for the Lakers is Dončić leaving. For Kessler, who will turn 25 this month, if Dončić does leave and the situation in L.A. doesn’t look as attractive as it does today for the young center, he won’t have to wait around to see if the Lakers will be able to recover.
That means he’ll be playing with a top-5 player for a team that truly expects to be a title contender and he also has control and direction for his future.
Kessler does very much love Utah. Full stop. I know that’s true.
He does have a very good relationship with head coach Will Hardy. He absolutely adored the fans and every time that I saw him interact with someone, he treated people as if he had no level of celebrity and he was just a normal guy, which the Utah fans appreciated.
This just ended up working out where everyone saw an opportunity and needed to put on their normal, non-tinted glasses and go for what they thought was best.
