Walker Kessler's name has been mentioned in Utah Jazz trade rumors, and some have speculated that there's fire to the smoke. His tenure in Utah has been up and down, which led to some juicy offseason gossip last year, but it didn't lead to anything.
The Lakers have emerged as a potential trade partner for some time now, but The Los Angeles Times' Dan Woike revealed that despite their interest in Kessler, the young Jazz big man is not on the market.
"While teams have expressed interest in Utah center Walker Kessler — the Lakers included — the belief in NBA circles is that he’s not available in any realistic trade scenarios, Utah electing to keep one of the NBA’s top rim protectors through the deadline."
It was fun to ponder if Kessler's in Utah was in doubt, but the rumors never made sense. Even when he was coming off a second-year performance that left much to be desired, why would the Jazz get rid of a productive player on a cheap rookie-scale contract?
Kessler also could have served as a sweetener for the Jazz to get rid of an unwanted contract, but the truth is, none of their tradeable players have such value these days. That's right, not even John Collins.
Trading Kessler to the Lakers would have made even less sense
The Jazz own a very valuable Lakers pick in 2027. There's no telling what LeBron James will look like in two years' time, but giving a young rim protector to the team whose pick you own not only potentially worsens that pick's value but also gives them something to build off of down the line when James hangs it up.
Even if the Jazz don't extend Kessler, he'll still be a restricted free agent in 2026. They basically have all the control here, so giving all of that up seems foolish. Maybe the Lakers could offer more picks, but it ties back to that old saying of "quality over quantity."
So, it appears Kessler will stick around with the Jazz for the long haul, and why shouldn't he? No one's taken issues with his play this season. Sure the Jazz's defense stinks despite Kessler taking another all-around step forward, but that may indicate that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts more than anything else.
The Jazz will be sellers by the deadline, but reports like this confirm Kessler won't be going anywhere. While many expected that to be the case anyway, that's a sigh of relief.