The Walker Kessler trade may not have been the biggest move of the NBA offseason, but it was definitely among the most shocking. It's not often that a restricted free agent leaves his team in the offseason, let alone one as quality as Walker Kessler, but the Utah Jazz did, and it caused quite a few ripples across the NBA!
The Athletic's Dan Woike revealed that if the Kessler trade did not happen, the Los Angeles Lakers would have turned to Mitchell Robinson as a Plan B.
"While Los Angeles believes in Kessler and he was either near or at the absolute top of Dončić’s wish list, scarcity undoubtedly played a role in the cost the Lakers had to pay. Had it not been Kessler, the Lakers, according to team and league sources, would’ve likely tried to sign free agent center Mitchell Robinson, who left the New York Knicks to sign a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston," Woike wrote.
Let's delve into what the effects did to the four teams this affected, starting with yours truly.
Jazz sacrificed their present a tad to ensure their future
Utah is technically a worse team for trading Kessler for draft assets, but doing so basically strips the Lakers of all of their options via trade. It's why the Lakers have been so hesitant to pull the trigger on any Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade. That kind of uncertainty could pay massive dividends down the line, even if it won't be right away.
Going from Kessler to Jusuf Nurkic and co. certainly poses its risks, but now Utah has the assets to get someone who could replace Kessler or maybe even get someone better.
The Jazz still have good reason to believe they will make the playoffs, even if no Kessler hurts those plans this coming season. Even so, they cashed in big time by trading Kessler, by taking advantage of a team desperate enough to want him more than the Jazz did.
Lakers are still on unstable ground, but it would have been worse
The Lakers addressed their biggest need at center by adding a good center with Kessler. However, there are still a lot of questions about what their long-term prospects, and by giving the Jazz the majority of their draft capital, they don't have a whole lot of options to turn to if this goes south.
Even so, Robinson would have been more problematic for them than Kessler. Not because he's worse but because he has a worse reputation for being a fragile player. Kessler's not a perfect player, but he has a clean bill of health, and outside of last season, he's not injury-prone.
The Lakers took a full measure after quite a few half measures post-Luka Doncic trade. Kessler might not work to the fullest advantage, but there weren't better options.
Celtics got to see their frontcourt vision through
Boston knew they had to shore up their frontcourt depth after it played a role in their early playoff demise. Like the Lakers, the Celtics' options were drying up, so coming away with nothing was going to be trouble for them.
That doesn't change the fact that Robinson is fragile, but the Celtics have enough depth in their frontcourt to conserve him in the regular season, unlike the Lakers, who would have expected him to play every night. Boston added Robinson knowing who he is and will handle him with care. In short, Boston added him with the hopes of him being a game-changer in the postseason.
If Robinson wasn't an option, the Celtics were also in trouble running it back with most of their frontcourt from last season intact. In a way, the Jazz kind of bailed them out of that by agreeing to the Kessler deal.
Knicks were losing Robinson anyway, but got worse nonetheless
New York wanted to avoid the second tax apron, hence, Robinson was out of there no matter what. However, losing him is a problem. Signing Andre Drummond to replace him was not a bad idea, but he's not Robinson.
Making it worse is that Robinson now plays for a division rival for the time being. Losing him was bad enough, but now they'll have to face him against their fiercest competitor. Going to the Lakers would have made sure he wouldn't have been a direct problem to them.
The Knicks are still the reigning NBA Champions, a label they earned after their playoff dominance. However, their competition is about to get stronger, and it's fair to say the Kessler trade played a part in that.
Add us as a preferred source on Google