Jazz Center Among Knicks Trade Targets

Throughout the offseason, the New York Knicks have been seeking several different options to replace center Isaiah Hartenstein, who left for the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency.

Among the players the Knicks have looked at potentially trading for is Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler. Bleacher Report writer Greg Swartz believes Kessler is a strong fit to replace Hartenstein for the Knicks.

“The 7-footer is an elite rim protector who averaged 8.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 22.3 minutes while making 65.4 percent of his shots,” Swartz writes.

Kessler, 23, is young and doesn’t have much experience playing in clutch games after two seasons with the lottery-bound Jazz, but his skillset would eclipse what Hartenstein was able to accomplish over this past season with the Knicks.

If the Knicks were to trade for him tomorrow, it would give him some time to build chemistry with the team, but it wouldn’t be a guarantee that he would be as good or better than Hartenstein. If anything, he would start out on the bench behind Mitchell Robinson.

Given his age and his starting status with the Jazz, his price for a trade with likely be multiple draft picks, which the Knicks don’t have much of considering they gave the Brooklyn Nets most of their future capital in the blockbuster deal that brought Mikal Bridges to Manhattan.

The Knicks would have to be willing to part with a significant piece in order for this trade with the Jazz to work. Julius Randle doesn’t make sense for the Jazz because Lauri Markkanen just signed a long-term deal, so the Knicks would need to get a third team involved or scrounge the rest of their draft capital to make a move for a backup center.

Overall, it’s a deal that is very unlikely to happen.

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