The Celtics have long coveted Utah’s young elite rim-protector and rebounder, Walker Kessler, but at age 24, on a rookie deal, it made zero sense for the rebuilding Jazz to consider parting with a potential franchise cornerstone. But that may be changing as Sam Amick of The Athletic reported on Monday night that Kessler “is at odds with the front office over his lack of an extension offer last summer and the current handling of his restricted free agency.”
That’s the last thing that the Jazz want to hear, and we’ve seen how ugly these restricted free agency situations get, with both sides generally being unsatisfied, leading to an ugly split. We saw it with Jonathan Kuminga, Cam Thomas, Quentin Grimes, and many others over the years, and if the Jazz don’t want to join that group, they may want to get ahead of this problem.
Jazz could trade Kessler before restricted free agency turns ugly
That would mean proactively looking to deal the young center before negotiations turn ugly beyond repair. He missed almost all of last season with a torn labrum, but established himself as one of the game’s best young bigs the season prior, averaging 11.1 points, 12.2 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in the 2024-25 season, his third in the league.
He’s never going to stretch the floor with shooting (never say never, I guess, but it’s not likely), nor is he likely to thrive switching onto perimeter players on defense, but in terms of conventional centers who can dominate around the rim, it would be hard to do much better than Kessler.
Perhaps this is just some smoke, and both sides will come to the table and work something out, but perhaps not. The fact that this news has gotten out there should at least be enough for Brad Stevens to call up his old friends Danny and Austin Ainge and see what’s going on.
Celtics should swoop in and try to steal Kessler
The Jazz already have some size with Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Kyle Filipowski, plus they could bring back Jusuf Nurkic in free agency. There’s a chance that with all of their young talent set to get more expensive soon, they may want to punt on paying another big man big money.
Maybe this is the opportunity they’ve been looking for all along, and for all we know, they’re going to draft another big man in Cam Boozer next week. It’s hard to know exactly what Kessler wants in free agency, or what the Jazz would want in a trade, but as long as he’s not looking for more than $27 million a year (this feels about right), Boston could take him on via sign-and-trade using their Anfernee Simons traded player exception.
Add a couple of picks on top, and throw in a Sam Hauser or something like that, and we could be cooking. It’s probably still a long shot, but these rumors don’t come out for no reason. If the relationship is ruined in Utah, the Ainges have no better place to look than their old home.
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