The Los Angeles Lakers felt they made a big coup by landing Walker Kessler as their new starting center this offseason.
However, the Utah Jazz were planning to move on from Kessler as early as last offseason, according to franchise president Austin Ainge.
“It’s something that we had been talking off and on for a year about, and we really valued Walker,” Ainge said of the Kessler trade, via Utah Jazz on SI.
Ainge’s admission reinforces the belief that the Lakers overpaid for Kessler, giving up two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps. The Lakers then locked up Kessler to a four-year, $129M deal in a sign-and-trade.
“Walker’s a good player. And we were planning on keeping him,” added Ainge. “But that [trade] offer got high enough that we thought it was the right move to make for the Jazz, for building a championship team.”
Lakers Take a Big Gamble
Ainge further stressed that the Jazz were floored by the Lakers’ overwhelming offer, noting the trade package was simply too rich to pass up.
“Those are extremely valuable assets,” Ainge said of the Lakers’ picks.
“We’ll see when and how we can use those in the future. You can’t predict that. But we think that we have really good players on the roster now, and we’re really excited to see this team play,” he continued.
“And then, we do have both the financial flexibility and the assets to add wherever we find a need, right? And I think that we’re excited to take a big step forward this year, see where that takes us, and see what other areas need to be shored up.”
Lakers Overpaid for Walker Kessler
Some have also expressed concerns that the Lakers overvalued Kessler given his recent injury history, having played just five games last season before undergoing shoulder surgery. However, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka has maintained that overpaying was a price worth paying to secure the team’s new starting center.
At the time of the trade, veteran NBA insiders like Zach Lowe and Sam Quinn had interest takes on the price the Lakers paid for Kessler.
“There is no question that they overpaid for him and are now trapped with this team and have to figure out either this is the team or is there a way to pivot by trading Austin Reaves down the line or something like that because they’re out of tradeable assets because of the Walker Kessler deal,” Lowe said. “All that said, he’s played no meaningful games in the NBA, basically, and barely played at all last year.
Quinn tried to “rationalize” the overpay by shedding light on the limited assets the Lakers traded to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic.
“In this world, the Lakers are overpaying Walker Kessler in the two years in which they’re underpaying Luka. That’s how you rationalize the overpay,” he wrote.
Kessler and the Lakers will have an immediate opportunity to prove critics wrong starting with their Oct. 21 season opener against the Golden State Warriors. Oddsmakers have set Los Angeles’ win total at 46.5.
Lakers Get Concerning Walker Kessler News Days Before Season