Walker Kessler Discussion: Rim Protector And Lob Threat

Appreciate the input

 

Thanks for the input

 

Kessler is a really good piece at a really good price. 32.5m is excellent if he continues to perform how he has and develops some more. With Luka and Reaves, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to score easy buckets. 16/12 plus 3 blocks isn’t out of possibility.

Really like this pickup.

But man the overpay hurts, 2 picks, 2 swaps and no salary dumped. Just awful. What should have been the piece to put us over the top, means we can’t build a starting unit good enough around him, Luka and Reaves to compete.

 

I love Kessler being on the team but man, the picks hurt. I believe we have no tradeable picks now until 2032. That’s rough. We definitely overpaid here.

 

The biggest worry I have with Kessler is, does he get played off the floor in the playoffs?

Rudy Gobert does, and Kessler to me is a version of him. If he can add 3pt shooting maybe that helps? But what happens when teams play 5 out on the perimeter. We saw it harmed Wemby’s production and he is the gold standard.

 

My business partner in Utah isn't that high on him. Says he went into a mental funk a few years ago. I haven't watched much of him, admittedly.

Hope he works out. We sold everything for him.

 

Yeah I think he will.
It's usually due to being targeted in mismatches on defense (meaning he needs perimeter defense he doesn't have nor will he I'd guess) and 5-out offense (needs 3pt shooting, which he started to chuck a few last year, was only good from one of the corners).

I'd say it's something we have all year (and upcoming ones) to develop from an individual and team perspective. It shouldn't be impossible to find defense and offense schemes that can protect him.
In any case, Mamu was brought for that I think. He's a stretch 5

 

Yeah I see it the same way.

You know everyone talks about the finishing 5.

Two years ago that was: Reaves, Luka, Lebron, Rui and DFS

- We lacked perimeter defense even though we had 4 strong switchable guys, they just couldn’t stop fast guards or really big centers. Minnesota had both.

Last year it was: Smart, Reaves, Luka, LeBron and we kind of lacked that last closing guy.

- So it kept changing, Rui, Ayton, Hayes, Kennard etc but we were one more wing or switchable center away from slotting a strong closing 5.

That’s why I was calling for Watson initially and then when I realised that wasn’t possible, Claxton. You can’t play Claxton off the floor on defense, he can switch with the best of them. And you have to sell out to stop the Luka + big pnr, and we would have had Kennard, Rui, Reaves, Lebron and Smart in some form to punish them.

Now I just don’t see how we get a x and o’s advantage against anyone in the playoffs. If they get Kessler off the floor. Who are we playing?

Sexton - Reaves - Grimes - Luka - Mamu?

Where is the defense coming from…

 

Yeah agree with you too.
Watson and Claxton fit the switchability that allows you to throw different covers to teams and adapt to any counters. With a traditional 5 as one of the big pieces we'll lack that.

Another thing is that the blueprint to beat the Spurs seems to be having a stretch 5 that can bring Wemby out of the paint. It makes it harder for him to recover and gasses him too.

But yeah our team is extremely thin to have any plan B, C or D. Hell, even plan A seems heavily flawed.

At this point, let's trust the organization and see how it plays out. Maybe it looks good on the floor, there's a lot we don't know and Luka and JJ aren't certainly playing around. JJ has shown he can maximize flawed groups, so let's see. He certainly needs to start trusting young or flawed guys more, so that will be interesting to follow

 

I think signing the best center on the market for about 30per is good.

 

Basically this is a good signing, probably the only one

 

It’s a good price for a good piece. The trade was not good. Wouldn’t have been as bad if it wasn’t our last assets.

It’s done now.

 

I really like his fit, but I'd rather we paid 40mil for year (which Utah was never going to match) and got him with 0 assets, and kept some assets to trade for a starter level wing.

I'm sorry this is just not good GM'ing

 

The overpay was justified. This is why teams usually do not pursue up-and-coming RFA's --- it's costly.

Lakers knew exactly what they had to cough up for this S&T.
Worst case scenario, Utah could have milked 7 days to match the offer sheet, leaving us with a dry FA market.
From Utah's perspective, there was no reason to do us any favors. They had all the leverage.

 

Being a RFA, he really wasn't "on the market"

 

when he was in high school?

people wanted us to move our last assets for jerami grant a couple years ago. buha nailed this one when he caught himself doing the same thing. do you want to obtain talent or not?

i'd rather we just drafted him, but we didn't. the price was actually pretty low, considering what other tertiary pieces have gone for (e.g., mikal bridges).

getting him for zero assets wasn't happening. i'm sure utah had people on the phone saying that if they matched kessler at max, they'd have interest later. as tada said, it's really hard to nab RFAs. 24 hours ago, everyone was saying it dumb to do because it was impossible.

i'd argue that saving 14 million on his starting salary got us a player we wouldn't have had. maybe one we'd have ended up wanting to trade a first for.

but everyone has already decided without ever seeing these guys play that that is also impossible, because all signings sucked.

 

Last 'good' restricted agent that wasn't matched was Chandler Parsons over a decade ago.

His final season (not player option) is only $33 million and the cap will probably jump 15% by then so this isn't a bad deal. Sucks to have to lose the pics but Lakers needed Jazz to not interfere so they gave them the picks in order to sign the other players who were 100% not going to wait one week for the Lakers to decide.

I think Walker is probably the 2nd best rim protector in the league and a top 5 defensive big. An elite rebounder, can run the floor, and does a fantastic job of switching to guards as well. If Luka could make Gafford look amazing, he could easily turn Walker into something Utah wasn't able to.

I think he could be a 17/14/3 blocks player for the Lakers and if that's the case, it was money well spent.

Fun fact: Kessler's uncle played in the NBA! His name is Alec Kessler.

 

Gives me Andrew Bynum vibes.