Another day, another Utah Jazz rumor linking Walker Kessler to the Knicks. Kessler makes sense on the Knicks since they lost Isaiah Hartenstein and will lose injury-prone Mitchell Robinson for some time to start the season.
This hypothetical has been floating around since early July, and there was a rumor not too long back that Kessler might not be in Utah's long-term plans. Zach Lowe brought Kessler up again as a Knicks target with Ian Begley on September 25.
It's also been mentioned ad nauseam that the Jazz won't trade Kessler, even if he has become a problem, solely to get rid of a problem. They'll want something for him, or better yet, they will only agree to a trade if they can rid themselves of another problem.
If the Knicks are willing, they could get Kessler, but it's likely that they'll have to do something else to make that deal work.
The Knicks would have to take John Collins too
Kessler is too valuable for there not to be a catch if a team wants to pry him away from the Jazz. Forget everything that happened in his second season. He's still a rim protector who is being paid dirt cheap on his rookie contract.
While of course, the Jazz would be more than open to more first-round picks in a potential Kessler trade, they already have an ocean of them. What they may also value is more cap flexibility. If that's the case, getting rid of Collins would likely be a high priority.
If Kessler not fitting into the Jazz's long-term plans is a possibility, then Collins certainly doesn't. The Jazz's goals this season are to develop their youth, and while Collins is a solid player, he's not a young buck anymore, and, though it's not entirely his fault, he is overpaid for his services to the point that the Jazz would have to give up assets to get rid of him by himself.
Now that only leaves how a deal would exactly be worked out between the two sides. To make such a deal for Kessler and Collins, the Knicks would likely have to include one of Robinson or Julius Randle to line up the contracts, which they may not do.
The one edge the Jazz have is that though they would like to get rid of Collins, they're not desperate to. The Knicks aren't necessarily desperate either at the moment, but that could change depending on how they start the season.
Hartenstein was so awesome for them that he just got one of the biggest pay raises an NBA player has ever seen and for good reason. Robinson is good, but he's never shed the injury bug. That could be a problem and the Jazz could fix it.
But doing so will certainly come at a price if that's what the Knicks want.