The Utah Jazz had the chance to extend Walker Kessler this offseason. However, the young Jazzman will enter the last season of his rookie contract without an extension. While this may sound like a cause for concern, the Jazz did this because they plan to pay Kessler next offseason while keeping their financial flexibility.
The Athletic's Tony Jones confirmed that the Jazz were unable to reach an agreement with Kessler after extension talks.
"The Utah Jazz and Walker Kessler will not reach an agreement on a rookie-scale contract extension, league sources tell The Athletic, which clears the way for the starting center to reach restricted free agency next summer," Jones wrote.
However, Jones added a pretty reasonable explanation before that should comfort Jazz fans following this update.
"By not signing Kessler now, he would have a cap hold of $14.9 million next summer, which would give the Jazz enough space to keep Kessler’s hold, and still do work in free agency. Then, theoretically, the Jazz and Kessler can come to an agreement. Because Utah holds Kessler’s bird rights, the Jazz would be able to exceed the cap by signing him." Jones wrote.
Jones also added that the Jazz "highly value Kessler and see him as a cornerstone to the future," so while some may read into this news and assume the worst - just look at what's happened between Golden State and Jonathan Kuminga - this is a sound strategy.
For all we know, Kessler and the Jazz already have an agreement in mind, but both sides are simply waiting until next offseason for him to sign on the dotted line.
Other teams have done this too
This was explored earlier this offseason, and now it has been confirmed: Utah is simply playing it smart and waiting until next offseason so that they can re-sign Kessler while maintaining their cap flexibility. The Philadelphia 76ers did this in 2023 when they opted not to re-sign Tyrese Maxey.
Instead, they waited until next offseason so that they could have their cake and eat it: give Maxey the extension he rightfully deserved while also preserving the cap flexibility to sign Paul George. The Jazz want to do the same, even if they may not secure a player of George's caliber alongside re-signing Kessler. Then again, they may not take much issue with that.
So yeah, there's going to be plenty of speculation that Kessler may be out of Utah, but fans should be pretty optimistic that this won't be a problem in the slightest. It would be a major shock if it did.