After being drafted 22nd overall by them in the 2022 NBA Draft, Walker Kessler joined the Utah Jazz with promise. The 7-foot shot-blocker promptly had an excellent rookie season, averaging 9.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in only 23.0 minutes per game, finishing third in the Rookie of the Year voting as the Jazz peeled off a surprisingly decent 2022-23 campaign. But since then, his star has dimmed.
Kessler fell to the bench in his sophomore season, with his numbers tanking across the board. And although he rebounded last season to the point that he averaged a double-double (11.1 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.4 blocks per game), the Jazz franchise he is with now is little like the one he first joined.
At his best, Kessler is one of the league’s most intimidating defenders at the rim. But after three up and down years, the time has come for a decision on his future – and there are indications that his time in Salt Lake City may be nearing its end. It is, if nothing else, increasingly possible.
No Extension Offer By The Jazz
At the crux of the uncertainty is the failure – or perhaps it would be better to say, lack of desire, by at least one party – to agree on a contract extension before the October deadline.
The Jazz reportedly were the ones who opted to hold off, instead preferring to see how the summer of 2026 free agency market will set Kessler’s price. They hold the card that is his restricted free agency, and are willing to tolerate the self-inflicted pressure of relying upon it if it means they can save some money on their cap going forward.
Kessler has not hidden his feelings. At the Jazz’s Media Day, he was (uncharacteristically, for an NBA player) open in admitting to feeling “a little frustrated” with the situation. The lack of an extension is not to say that he and the Jazz will be forced to separate, of course, but it will inevitably feel like a rejection, a statement of business over relationship in what is increasingly a player’s league.
Finances, though, rule the day. By not extending, Kessler will enter restricted free agency, and his cap hold (the amount of cap space he will eat up, even though he is not under contract) will be equal to $14,636,814 . This will be a significant saving on what he should be expected to cost in the first year of an extension, which would not be for less than $20 million, and could easily be a decent amount more than that. The Jazz have cap space dreams for next summer, and managing the Kessler situation will facilitate a decent portion of that.
Realistic Trade Possibility For Kessler
Compounding the uncertainty for Kessler, however, is the fact that there is a trade market for him. The idea of external suitors is not just theoretical.
Trade rumors have bubbled up around the league. One speculative scenario sees the Golden State Warriors offering a package of whatever they can rustle up in exchange for Kessler, while the Los Angeles Lakers have also been floated in connection with a potential move, given their need for an interior presence next to stars like LeBron James and Luka Doncic. Even the Boston Celtics have been linked.
From a purely basketball standpoint, Kessler has obvious value. He continues to rank among the NBA’s elite shot-blockers and glass-clearers, anchoring the interior defense and giving the team a legitimate rim deterrent. But the financial realities of Kessler’s current Jazz team are as real as his potential suitors on the trade market. In tandem, between the lack of extension and the trade interest, the buzz is in the air that he is available.
Jazz Have Options – Keeping Him Is Only One Of Them
For a Jazz team most definitely in a period of transition, spending heavily on a big man – even one as productive as Kessler as already proven to be – may come at the expense of assembling complementary pieces.
Because they do not have a foundation around which to built, the Jazz have – and therefore must operate under the pretense of – carte blanche in being able to decide who those foundation stones will be. Kessler is good, by any measure – but is he as good as a foundational piece for a team at the bottom as he would be on the trade market as a potential final piece for a team near the top?