The Utah Jazz have the inside track on Walker Kessler's free agency, whether he likes it or not. The prevailing theory is that the Jazz's plans are to re-sign him while also adding a big-name free agent this offseason. However, even though it makes all the sense in the world on paper, it may not be set in stone.
ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel confirmed that the Jazz won't trade Kessler before the offseason, but it's not set in stone
"Although the Jazz have received plenty of interest in Walker Kessler, he, too, is expected to remain on the roster past the Feb. 5 trade deadline. Whether or not the Jazz extend Kessler or look to work out a sign-and-trade in free agency is yet to be determined," Siegel wrote.
There have been reports suggesting that Utah wants to keep Kessler, and they likely will be able to, but the question will be for how long, for how much, and whether Kessler will be happy with them when it's all said and done.
That last point is definitely worth considering, because while Kessler didn't delve much into what happened, he did make it clear that he was frustrated with how the extension talks went between him and Utah on Jazz Media Day. The Jazz have the chance to make up some ground with him this summer, but they clearly don't want to overpay while also not upsetting him further.
Utah has all the leverage with Kessler, but that doesn't mean this offseason will go smoothly for them. If they look to trade him, it might be hard to figure out what value they would get in return that would be considered equal.
Kessler would be hard to replace
Utah was already lucky enough to get Kessler in the Rudy Gobert trade. He's not as good as Gobert is (not many players with the same archetype have ever played at the level Gobert still does), but that doesn't detract from the fact that he has been a pretty apt replacement for the Jazz all-timer.
Kessler is already one of the NBA's best rim protectors and rebounders, and that's not something Utah can easily replace. He's not young, but he's young enough, and because the Jazz plan to win next season, he fits their timeline now.
It makes sense that Utah wanted to wait until this coming offseason what they want to do with Kessler. It's very likely he will stay, but he made it clear he was not happy with how extension talks went, so Utah's aim shouldn't be just to keep him, but also make sure there's no hard feelings when he signs on the dotted line.
Kessler isn't necessarily a perennial All-Star in the making (Note: he looked like he was taking another leap before his season ended), but the little things he does are valuable enough that the Jazz can't afford to let this turn into another Gordon Hayward situation.