I think if you believe in him, you need to pay him Jarrett Allen money. He's not an All Star, but he's one of the best young defensive centers in the league. Give him a 4th year team option on a deal close to $100M (like 4/$96M).
Kessler's extension
- Thread starter jazznik
- Start date
efukillar
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I expect Walker to be a better center than Allen. It's not obvious right now because the Jazz are tanking, but I think everyone will see his true value around the 26/27 season.
Just thinking out loud:
If we keep Lauri then we probably want to start being competitive sooner than later, so locking in Kessler becomes more important, but getting him on a good deal also becomes more important.
If we trade Lauri it probably doesn't matter as much if we keep Kessler or how much we pay him.
Does that sound right? Like I said I haven't thought this through.
If we keep Lauri then we probably want to start being competitive sooner than later, so locking in Kessler becomes more important, but getting him on a good deal also becomes more important.
If we trade Lauri it probably doesn't matter as much if we keep Kessler or how much we pay him.
Does that sound right? Like I said I haven't thought this through.
Also should be noted that Kessler’s cap hold would only be $14M. Lauri is the only guy on the books not on a rookie contract in summer 2026. We could be looking at make a cap space play that season. We would be eating at our cap space, not sure how important that is.
The ideal path forward would be hitting the top of the 25 and 26 drafts and then hopefully our situation looks good enough to convince a FA to sign with us or we have flexibility to trade for the big fish to add to 25/26/Lauri/Kessler.
The ideal path forward would be hitting the top of the 25 and 26 drafts and then hopefully our situation looks good enough to convince a FA to sign with us or we have flexibility to trade for the big fish to add to 25/26/Lauri/Kessler.
There are very few good centers in the next two drafts. It's probably too early on 2026, but I don't see many highly rated centers. There is a decent chance that Kessler is better than any center in the next two drafts.
A $30M salary would be 8.3% of the cap in the last year of a 5 year deal. The MLE that season will be $22.7M. With a front loaded deal, we could get him down to $26.7M. The earlier years of his deal are unlikely to matter cap wise in any significant way.
I get having sticker shock, but the cap is booming. I think it's smart for teams to give these very long deals. It's hard for anyone to turn down $150M, but $150M isn't a huge anchor on a team's cap situation.
I get having sticker shock, but the cap is booming. I think it's smart for teams to give these very long deals. It's hard for anyone to turn down $150M, but $150M isn't a huge anchor on a team's cap situation.
He’s an above average center. I would rather trade than pay what I think will be $30 million a year. I think he’d bring a good return, I just don’t know if he’s a legit playoff contributor.
8.3% doesn't seem right. What are you projecting the cap to be in his final year? 360 million? I'm seeing projections of 260 million, which would be about 12%.
It doesn't really change your point much, but just curious.
I find it extremely hard to know what contracts are in terms of value until more of the league is signed under the new money. 25-30 million sounds right to me though.