The Lakers needed a center. Everyone knew it. But the price they just paid for Utah’s Walker Kessler has people around the league raising eyebrows — and it’s starting to look like the Jazz had Rob Pelinka exactly where they wanted him.
Los Angeles shipped out two first-round picks and two future pick swaps to land Kessler, then quickly locked him into a long-term extension. On paper, it fills a glaring hole in the middle for a team that’s been searching for reliable big-man production since Anthony Davis started shifting to the four. But the cost? Steep. Really steep.
According to Anthony F. Irwin of Offside, the leverage Utah held over Pelinka was massive. He posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “Rob’s job depended on landing Kessler. Utah took him for everything he could offer. Doesn’t mean it might not work out. Just pointing out how steep a price this was to pay.”
That tracks with the circumstances. LeBron James announced earlier this week that he’d be taking his talents elsewhere in free agency, suddenly evaporating the Lakers’ primary selling point for any star player. With LeBron gone, the pressure shifted entirely onto Pelinka to prove he could build a contender around Luka Doncic before the franchise slipped into irrelevance. The Jazz knew that. And they exploited it.
The Kessler deal doesn’t exist in a vacuum either. Since the trade broke, the Lakers have also signed Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, and Sandro Mamukelashvili, per Shams Charania of ESPN. Those are useful pieces — shooting, secondary ball-handling, some versatility on the wings. But none of them are stars. None of them replace LeBron’s production or gravity.
A Classic Seller’s Market
Utah’s front office understood they were the only game in town for a desperate Lakers team. Danny Ainge has never been shy about asking for a king’s ransom, and this time he got it. Kessler is a legitimate rim protector and a solid rebounder, but he’s also dealt with injury issues and hasn’t consistently stayed on the floor over his young career. Paying four assets for him — including first-round swaps that could hurt down the road — is a gamble even the most optimistic Lakers fan has to squint to justify.
The question now is whether this roster, with Doncic, Austin Reaves, and a bunch of role players, can actually compete in the Western Conference. The West is brutal. Denver, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Phoenix — none of those teams got worse. The Lakers added depth and a starting center, but they lost the best player in franchise history in the same week.
Pelinka might have saved his job for now. But he paid a premium to do it. And if Kessler can’t stay healthy or the supporting cast doesn’t gel, this trade will be remembered as the move that mortgaged the future for a short-term fix that never really fixed anything.
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