Utah Jazz Mailbag: Are Lakers Interested In Walker Kessler?
Oct 29, 2024, 3:07 PM
SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag where today we explore recent trade rumors surrounding Walker Kessler and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Each week we will send out a prompt on X asking for the questions you have about the Jazz.
Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s mailbag and on the Jazz Notes podcast.
Mailbag: Would Jazz Trade Kessler To The Lakers?
Walker has been impressive. Do you think the Jazz would trade him to the Lakers considering he’s young and we own their ’27 pick?
— Holly Hardy (@hallsrh) October 28, 2024
Question: Walker has been impressive. Do you think the Jazz would trade him to the Lakers considering he’s young and we own their ’27 pick?
Answer: In full transparency, these mailbag questions were submitted on Monday, hours before Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle in the team’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
With that in mind, it’s important to address how the Hendricks injury may change some of the Jazz’s short-term and long-term plans.
Related: Hendricks Diagnosed With Broken Leg, Dislocated Ankle
Losing Hendricks is a destabilizer for the entire Jazz season.
The second-year forward had earned a starting job, and maximizing his reps and development were a high priority for the team this year.
After losing Hendricks, the Jazz will have to re-examine how his 26 minutes should be allocated, and how that relates to every player on the team’s roster.
Taylor Hendricks first post since last night’s injury. pic.twitter.com/tFrBhLX2jV
— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) October 29, 2024
The ripple effect may result in the Jazz being more aggressive in roster movement, or may force them to batten down the hatches and take a more conservative approach to team building for the rest of the season.
If the Jazz see it as an opportunity to dedicate more developmental minutes to fewer players, Kessler’s value could rise on the team’s priorities list.
If the Jazz determine it’s a lost season, they may opt to slip further into a rebuild by maximizing asset acquisition, in which case they could be more willing to move their starting center.
With Hendricks’s injury still so fresh, and the season in its infancy, it’s difficult to project where the team will go.
Now, if we were to address Kessler in a vacuum and ignore Hendricks’s injury, this becomes an interesting conversation.
The Athletic’s Jovan Buha reported Kessler is a name the Lakers have kicked the tires on in the past, and with their promising start to the year, may be someone they revisit this season.
The Lakers have shown interest in Walker Kessler, per @jovanbuha 👀 pic.twitter.com/XcfEJ9UxLr
— Solid Lakers (@SolidLakers) October 29, 2024
The Jazz were reportedly seeking two first-round picks in exchange for Kessler this offseason, but have been excited about the center’s development in the early parts of the season.
The question then becomes, do the Jazz see Kessler as a long-term solution at center, or would they prefer to sell high on the third-year big man?
The Jazz already own the Lakers 2027, with protections keeping in LA if the pick winds up between 1-4, but the Lakers have control of their first-round picks after that.
As a result, the Lakers could meet the Jazz’s asking price of two future first-round picks, say in 2029 and 2031 in exchange for Kessler, and have a litany of players on small contracts that could be used to make the trade work financially.
Or, the Lakers could lift the protections on the 2027 pick, add another first-round pick, and a player to match Kessler’s salary, and hope that meets the Jazz’s requirements.
Further complicating the issue is that the Jazz’s asking price for Kessler was two first-round picks coming off of a difficult sophomore campaign.
bigs doing big things 🤝#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/215uK7oeVC
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) October 29, 2024
Recognizing it’s a small sample size, Kessler has opened the year with career-high averages in points, rebounds, and blocked shots, and looks noticeably more impactful in games.
Has Kessler’s improvement also raised the Jazz’s asking price?
All of this is a long way of saying that after Hendricks’s injury, the Jazz’s potential change in priorities, and Kessler’s sudden growth have introduced a lot of noise into the situation, and teams don’t generally make moves when they lack clarity in the data.
My guess is that the Jazz will put any trade talks on hold in light of recent developments, but nothing is ever fully off the table.
One week into the season, how are we feeling about our draft position?
— Alex (@AEC_PA) October 28, 2024
Question: One week into the season, how are we feeling about our draft position?
Answer: Well, it’s hard to be worse than winless in the NBA, and one week into the season, the Jazz and Detroit Pistons are the only two teams without a victory to their name.
While it’s hard to split hairs among winless teams, the Jazz have a net rating of -16.6, far and away the worst in the NBA, and the Pistons rank 27th and -7.6.
For comparison, the gap between the Jazz, ranked 30th, and the Washington Wizards, ranked 29th, is 6.3 points.
That 6.3 points is bigger than the gap between the Wizards and the 19th-ranked Atlanta Hawks.
Before the season, I circled the Pistons, the Wizards, the San Antonio Spurs, the Brooklyn Nets, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Chicago Bulls, and the Toronto Raptors as teams I thought would be competing with the Jazz for lottery balls at the end of the season.
Here’s a look at those teams’ net rating, rank, and records through one week of action.
Jazz: -16.6 (30th) 0-3
Wizards: -10.3 (29th) 1-2
Raptors: -8.6 (28th) 1-2
Pistons: -7.6 (27th) 0-4
Trail Blazers: -7.2 (25th) 1-3
Spurs: -6.0 (22nd) 1-2
Bulls: -4.7 (20th) 2-2
Nets: -2.3 (17th) 1-2
Hornets: -1.9 (16th) 1-2
Though heavily weighted by a 41-point blowout at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, the Jazz aren’t just the worst team in net rating, there’s some distance between them and the Wizards at the bottom of the barrel.
The Pistons have more losses, but have been more competitive in games against the Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, and the Miami Heat.
For fans hoping the Jazz maximize their lottery odds in May, it’s difficult to nitpick the team’s 0-3 start to the year.
Want to ask questions in next week’s mailbag? Give us a follow at @kslsports.
Are you on Threads yet? Let’s connect, give us a follow @kslsports.
Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops or on Instagram @BensHoops.
