When the Utah Jazz acquired Jaren Jackson Jr., many were hyped to imagine what he and Walker Kessler would look like together this coming season. However, that went out the window the moment the Jazz traded Kessler to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, with all the time that has passed since the trade, it's worth pondering whether the JJJ trade gave Utah enough comfort to trade Kessler.
It's not like Utah gave him away to Los Angeles. In fact, it's kind of amazing how many favors the Lakers did for the Jazz in that deal. However, what may have made the Jazz feel more comfortable letting Kessler go was that they had Jackson in case a team wanted to pay up.
Kessler is one of the NBA's best rim protectors, but JJJ is one of the NBA's best overall defenders, period. While it would have been cool to see the two of them share the floor together, JJJ's presence is strong enough that Utah may have convinced themselves that Kessler was expendable (to a certain degree).
It was already a tough enough conundrum for the Jazz knowing that if they paid good money to keep Kessler, they weren't going to be able to keep their core for very long (those tax aprons were such a good idea!), so they got ahead of it by choosing to part ways with Kessler instead of potentially Jackson or Markkanen down the line (which they may have to do anyway, but not for a few years).
It was a tricky situation. Between dodging the tough punishments for crossing the aprons and JJJ's reputation, Utah may have felt comfortable cashing in on Kessler when they had the chance, even if he left an obvious hole to be filled.
Whether they made the right call is TBD
When healthy, Jackson is one of the NBA's elite defenders on top of everything else he does, but Utah should be aware that he has a tendency to get into foul trouble and is among the worst rebounders for players his size. The Jazz are hoping to compensate for this by bringing Jusuf Nurkic back, adding Jaxson Hayes, and hoping Kyle Filipowski takes a leap with more time.
It's not the worst plan to replace what Kessler brought, but it's still flawed anyway. Utah is evidently more underrated than the fans thought coming into this season, but trading Kessler still raises questions that they can't answer until the product is finally on the court.
There's a chance that this could work out splendidly for Utah, but we must not ignore that there's a chance this could blow up in their face.
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