Walker Kessler is now a Los Angeles Laker, and the price tag has half the NBA world scratching its head. The Lakers sent two unprotected first-round picks and two first-round swaps to the Utah Jazz for the 7-foot-2 shot blocker, then signed him to a four-year, $130 million deal.
That’s a steep price for a big man who played five games last season. It’s also, according to Nick Wright, a stunning data point in the ongoing debate over Jaylen Brown’s value, since the Boston Celtics reportedly landed a similar package when they moved Brown to Philadelphia this offseason.
Lakers Load Up for Kessler While Celtics Take Heat
The numbers are what set Wright off. Utah landed two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, plus first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030, for Kessler. The Lakers locked him into a four-year, $130 million deal, complete with a player option for the fourth season and a full trade kicker.
Kessler averaged 11.1 points and 12.2 rebounds in 2024-25, his last healthy year, and his 2.4 blocks per game trail only Victor Wembanyama since he entered the league in 2022-23.
Wright’s issue isn’t with Kessler. It’s what the return says about how the league views Brown. Boston reportedly received two first-round picks and two second-round picks for Brown, along with relief from a contract many considered a burden on the books.
To Wright, that means teams valued an oft-injured young center about the same as an All-Star wing with two championship runs on his resume. “There’s not a team in the league that thinks he’s awesome. That’s what this trade tells us,” Wright said. That’s an ordinary return for a player who started for a title team, he added.
Wright’s bigger complaint is about how the league reads advanced stats. He said per-36-minute projections don’t tell the full story when a guy like Brown routinely guards the other team’s best scorer and logs heavy minutes because his team needs him to.
Asking Brown to defend elite wings every night while also carrying an offensive load skews his efficiency numbers, in Wright’s view. “It is unfathomable to me that it turns out Walker Kessler has more trade value than Jaylen Brown,” he said.
He also brought up the aborted attempt to trade Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a deal Boston reportedly walked away from. If the front office wouldn’t part with Brown for a two-time MVP plus two firsts and a role player, Wright argued, it’s fair to ask why moving him for a far smaller package made sense.
He named prospects like Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez as reasons Boston felt fine running it back, but questioned whether that logic holds up.
Wright’s bottom line was simple. “I think they should have kept Jaylen. If this is all you could get, keep Jaylen running back, and they would be right there with the Knicks next year,” he said.
Boston already won a title with this group. That part, he said, got forgotten.
