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The Lakers‘ decision to enter into a sign-and-trade agreement with the Jazz to acquire restricted free agent center Walker Kessler was an all-in swing to establish a defensive infrastructure to complement offensive-first backcourt of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

Kessler is the exact type of defender you’d want to play alongside Los Angeles’ two lead guards, Sam Vecenie writes in a breakdown for The Athletic. The 24-year-old big man is a high-level interior rotator, making him a great help defender, and he has become more schematically versatile over his time in Utah, according to Vecenie, who predicts that Kessler makes at least one All-Defensive team during his time with the Lakers. However, Vecenie believes Kessler can be a great defender rather than an elite one, ranking his ceiling above players like Jarrett Allen and Isaiah Hartenstein but below Rudy Gobert.

Offensively, Kessler is a very strong screener, making him a good pick-and-roll partner for Reaves and Doncic, as well as a lob threat and an elite offensive rebounder. However, there are concerns with how limited his scoring game is overall, Vecenie notes. In half-court settings, excluding offensive rebounds, Kessler only took around four shots per game last year, and his limitations on that side of the ball could be a concern in the playoffs.

The contract Kessler signs will likely end up paying him fairly based on how he ranks among centers league-wide, but the draft picks sent to acquire him, which depleted the Lakers’ future-facing assets, make the move incredibly risky, Vecenie concludes, while adding that it very well could turn out to be the right choice. It must work for L.A. to make the most of its Doncic era.

We have more Lakers news and notes:

• By agreeing to trade Deandre Ayton to the Wizards for Jaden Hardy and two second-round picks, the Lakers were able to create $2.1MM in savings. That extra bit of space gave the team the financial flexibility it needed to add free agents Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Kessler into their cap space, as Yossi Gozlan details for The Third Apron (Substack link). Without that trade, the Lakers wouldn’t quite have had enough room to complete their deals for Grimes (four years, $60MM), Mamukelashvili (four years, $52MM), and Kessler (four years, $130MM) based on their reported terms.
• 2025 second-round pickAdou Thiero didn’t play much in his rookie year, but he’s looking to step into a leadership role for the Lakers’ Summer League team, Thuc Nhi Nguyen writes for the L.A. Times. Thiero is also already forming an intriguing wing duo with rookie Cameron Carr, given the former’s rim pressure ability and the latter’s hair-trigger jump shot. “That’s a dynamic partnership between the two of them,” Summer League coach Ty Abbott said after Sunday’s victory over Miami at the California Classic. “They did a really good job of playing with each other. There’s a good connection there. Adou, being unselfish, finds him and they just kind of play from there. The connection that they have and their unselfishness for the two of them to work together, after, you know, five days, is great. Love to see that.”
• The Lakers are trying to do something they haven’t attempted in years: build a competitive roster without LeBron James. Even though James took a bit of a step back into a supporting role at times last season, his presence was a safety net for the team, especially when Reaves and/or Doncic missed time, Law Murray writes for The Athletic. Now, that safety net is gone and the roster doesn’t yet look like a finished product. The recent additions have little playoff experience, and several of them may be best suited for bench roles on a contender, according to Murray, who suggests the Lakers could use another forward who could give them 25 solid minutes per game.