Throughout the offseason, the New York Knicks pursued several different options to replace center Isaiah Hartenstein, who left for the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency.
Among the players the Knicks are considering trading is Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler. Bleacher Report writer Greg Swartz believes Kessler is a good fit to replace Hartenstein with the Knicks.
“The 6’4″ player is an elite basket protector who averaged 8.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in 22.3 minutes while shooting 65.4 percent from the field,” Swartz writes.
Kessler, 23, is young and doesn’t have much experience in big games after two seasons with the lottery-bound Jazz, but his skill set would eclipse what Hartenstein accomplished last season with the Knicks.
If the Knicks traded him tomorrow, it would give him time to build some chemistry with the team, but it wouldn’t guarantee he’d be as good or better than Hartenstein. Instead, he’d start on the bench behind Mitchell Robinson.
Given his age and starting status with the Jazz, his price for a trade will likely be multiple draft picks, which the Knicks don’t have many of given that 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 key player to make this trade with the Jazz work. Julius Randle doesn’t make sense for the Jazz because Lauri Markkanen just signed a long-term contract, so the Knicks would have to go to a third team or recoup the rest of their draft capital to make a move for a backup center.
Overall, this is a deal that has very little chance of being completed.
