The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a championship push after the Luka Doncic trade completely changed the vibe around the 2024-25 NBA season. Despite that, plenty of people are ready to look towards the overall future in Hollywood.
Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report is one of those people. The sports writer pitched 30 potential NBA trades for once the NBA offseason rolls around and teams are allowed to make moves again. The Lakers were featured in that article quite a bit.
One of those potential deals tackled a familiar problem for Los Angeles. It involved, of course, answering the question of what to do with the center position. A familiar link resurfaced as the solution for the Lakers.
Lakers continue to pester the Jazz for Walker Kessler
Stop me if you have heard this one before: Los Angeles should push their chips in to acquire Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz. Don’t actually stop me, because then there would be no point to continuing this writeup.
Swartz suggested that once Rob Pelinka is able to make phone calls regarding trades again, this is the one that the Lakers should propose.
The response to this trade is very simple. For the Lakers, this is a deal that you do in a heartbeat. Despite the strong production from Dalton Knecht recently, similarly to the Mark Williams deal, this is an acquisition that Los Angeles should pull the trigger on. The need is obvious and the solution here fills it for the long term.
The problem with this suggested trade by Swartz is the unlikeliness that Utah would go for it.
The Lakers have been chasing Kessler for quite some time. They have done this dance. If this was all it took to acquire the two-way big man, the deal would have probably been done before this year’s NBA trade deadline. There were numerous reports and tons of rumors about the consistently high asking price that the Jazz had for any trade that would involve Kessler.
“League sources believe the asking price for a cheaper alternative like Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz is Dalton Knecht and the Lakers’ 2029 and 2031 first-round picks,” Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report wrote earlier this year before the deadline.
Lakers grade: A+
If this was on the table and wound up being the finalized trade, the Lakers would make out like bandits.
Jazz grade: C+
As mentioned, the Jazz reportedly have their eyes set on a better return than this. There is also no apparent reason as to why Utah would be in a rush to get rid of their talented, young big man amid their rebuild.