Report: Lakers could run into trouble with pursuit of Walker Kessler

The Athletic’s Jovan Buha became the latest person to connect the Los Angeles Lakers to Utah Jazz big man Walker Kessler a few days ago when he reported that Los Angeles has been interested in the 23-year-old.

“It’s a really good question,” Buha said when asked to name realistic trade targets for the Lakers ahead of the trade deadline. “I don’t — I think we need more time to kind of see which guys become available. I think Walker Kessler is a name that the Lakers have been interested in. That, I think, would make a lot of sense and would allow you to either start a two-big look or — probably more realistically — bring him off the bench and then play two-big shifts and then in certain matchups close with two bigs, him and A.D. (Anthony Davis) obviously.”

But one of Buha’s colleagues at The Athletic — Sam Amick — has provided an update on the Kessler situation that isn’t exactly grounds for optimism.

“While our Jovan Buha recently reported the Lakers have interest in Kessler, a Jazz source indicated the possible framework of a deal — D’Angelo Russell and multiple first-round picks — would not be of interest,” Amick wrote. “As noted above, though, there could be other Lakers iterations that might be of more interest.”

The other iterations in question could include fourth-year guard Austin Reaves, Amick seemingly speculated, but one has to imagine that the Lakers wouldn’t be thrilled about the idea of trading him away.

So far in this young NBA season, only two players in the league are blocking shots with greater regularity than Kessler is.

Across five games played in his third season in Utah, he is averaging a whopping 2.6 rejections per contest, putting him in a tie for third alongside Milwaukee Bucks big man Brook Lopez (also 2.6). Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren is leading the league with 3.5 blocks per game, and San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama is not far behind him with 3.2.

Kessler served as a particularly dominant rim protector in Utah’s season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 23, as he totaled five blocks in under 30 minutes of playing time.

To put Kessler’s performance against Memphis in perspective, the Lakers are currently averaging just 4.4 blocks per game as a team.

As for the other end of the court, Walker has a limited skill set, but he does enough offensively to be considered a double-double threat.

He’s also quite effective at generating extra possessions for the Jazz on offense thanks to his knack for pulling down offensive rebounds. Kessler has averaged 2.9 offensive rebounds per contest for his NBA career and is grabbing a career-high 3.8 this season.

Interestingly, the Lakers will face off against Kessler’s Jazz in the near future. The two teams are scheduled to square off later in the month on Nov. 19.

Maybe how Kessler performs in that contest will be a deciding factor in how hard the Lakers pursue him in the coming months.