Lakers Offseason Chaos: Walker Kessler and the Search for Stability
The Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason has felt less like a plan and more like a plot twist.
Another one landed this week. A name Lakers fans are tired of hearing walked out the door and into a two-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, stripping away one more option from a franchise already short on flexibility and long on questions.
This is all unfolding against the backdrop of a second ownership change in just 14 months. Stability is supposed to start at the top. In Los Angeles, it has barely had time to find a chair.
Kessler in, questions everywhere else
On paper, the Lakers checked off their biggest box. They finally got their man.
Walker Kessler arrived in a sign-and-trade with the Utah Jazz, the culmination of a multiyear chase that had become something of a running subplot around the franchise. At 7-foot-2 and 245 pounds, he brings the size and rim protection they’ve been trying to put next to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves since the day Doncic landed in L.A.
“The Lakers filled their biggest need by landing Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz to pair the 7-foot-2, 245-pound big man alongside (Luka) Doncic and (Austin) Reaves — ending a multiyear saga of attempting to bring Kessler to Los Angeles and finally giving Doncic the type of big man he typically thrives alongside,” Lakers reporter Khobi Price wrote for the California Post.
That’s the optimistic part.
Here’s the concern: Kessler played just five games last season. Five. For a team with title ambitions, the margin for error at backup center is close to zero. The Lakers don’t just need a body behind him; they need someone who can soak up real minutes if Kessler’s availability becomes an issue again.
The free-agent market offers no comfort. The remaining bigs are either unproven, past their prime, or both. L.A. doesn’t need another star, but it does need reliability, size, and someone who won’t flinch if he’s suddenly asked to play 28 minutes in a conference semifinal.
That’s where Daniel Gafford’s name keeps circling back.
Gafford on the board
Dallas’ handling of Gafford has cracked open a small window for the Lakers.
The Mavericks, according to NBA insider Brett Siegel, were willing to talk about the 2019 first-round pick as they scoured the league for trade options involving Klay Thompson. Thompson ultimately chose the Miami Heat in free agency, and those Gafford conversations never turned into anything concrete.
“(The Mavs) believed that they could get something (in a trade for Thompson),” Siegel reported this week. “… There was nothing there. They were talking with teams about Daniel Gafford, about potentially trading him. Again, nothing really ever happened there.”
Nothing happened then. That doesn’t mean nothing can happen now.
Gafford isn’t a mystery. Playing alongside Doncic in the 2023-24 season, he helped power Dallas’ run to the NBA Finals as the starting center, averaging 11.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. He rim-ran, finished lobs, protected the paint and, crucially for the Lakers, proved he understands how to operate next to Doncic.
That chemistry is the hook. Los Angeles already knows the template works.
The price of protection
The problem, as always with this version of the Lakers, is cost.
The Kessler deal did what big moves always do: it solved one issue while stripping the cupboard bare. The franchise is light on draft capital and short on mid-tier contracts that can be stacked into something appealing.
Khobi Price framed the reality bluntly.
“Without (Jonthan) Kuminga, the answer to who’ll be their fifth starter is likely already on the team. Every other starting-caliber or pseudo starting-caliber wing/forward free agent for a team looking to contend in the playoffs has already been signed. Those types of players aren’t easy to trade for, and the Lakers lack the draft capital to credibly make a deal,” he wrote.
Translate that to the Gafford chase: Dallas can ask for a first-round pick, and the Lakers simply don’t have one to put on the table.
Money complicates it further. Gafford is due roughly $17 million next season. To get near that number, the Lakers would almost certainly have to move someone like Jarred Vanderbilt, who is owed about $12 million. Vanderbilt remains one of their few tradable, mid-salary pieces — a defensive specialist on a reasonable deal.
Would they burn that chip on a backup center? Or is Gafford more than that in their eyes, given his track record with Doncic?
Dallas’ stance may end up deciding the matter. If the market stays quiet and no team comes close to the Mavericks’ initial asking price, that number can slide. A first-round pick dream can become a more modest return. That’s where a team like the Lakers, armed with limited assets but a clear fit, can sneak in.
They need a second line of defense behind Kessler. They know Gafford can play off Doncic. The Mavericks have already shown a willingness to listen.
The question now is simple: in a summer that has already turned chaotic, will the Lakers find a way to turn that opening into the one move that finally steadies their frontcourt?
