The Utah Jazz made arguably the biggest splash of 2026 NBA Trade Deadline when they acquired Jaren Jackson Jr. All returns on JJJ have been positive (even if he has his warts), but the big takeaway that many have discounted is the fact that the market for centers substantially decreased after the deadline, meaning the Jazz just gained plenty of leverage on Walker Kessler’s RFA.

NBA Insider Marc Stein delved into this during his appearance on the All NBA Podcast, where he explained that because Kessler’s suitors acquired centers at the deadline, it shrinks his market.

“The Jazz, to me, are… super interesting because all the signals are that they will match any offers in restricted free agency for Walker Kessler. There’s another player who what is his restricted free agency gonna look like? Is it going to move quickly or is it going to drag out?

“The Pacers have been trying to get Kessler for ages. They ultimately pivoted to Zubac because Utah wanted no part of it. Washington was said to be a team that was going to put a big offer in for Kessler and obviously, now they’ve gone in a different direction.”

Before Indiana and Washington made those trades at the deadline, they were two teams that had cap space who needed centers, which could have made Kessler’s free agency get real interesting, but now, they are off the table.

So who’s left?

The Jazz no longer have to worry about the Wizards or Pacers, but there are still two teams that could make things interesting. Note: there are only two: the Lakers and the Nets.

The Lakers absolutely need defense like their lives depended on it. Luka Doncic’s defense is still highly questionable that they will need a high quantity of high quality defenders to mask that problem. Kessler would help solve that problem, but LA is going to have their hands tied this offseason.

They’re already dealing with LeBron James’ ambiguous free agency this summer, and all expectations are that they will have to back up the Brinks truck with Austin Reaves. They could try to pluck Kessler off the Jazz before re-signing Reaves, but there’s no telling if he’s willing to wait that long.

Then there’s the Nets, who already have a big man they’re paying good money for: Nicolas Claxton. They could be players in restricted free agency, but it’s hard to see why they would want to pay up for Kessler when they’ve already got a solid two-way center in Claxton. They could trade Claxton for assets to sign Kessler to an offer sheet, but would they really do that while not knowing if they could get the Jazzman?

Kessler was already stuck between a rock and a hard place. He’ll want to get paid, but losing two teams that were, by all accounts, the likeliest to give him the money he wants makes it harder to see him getting the money he’ll want.

The question will be whether he’ll take the money Utah’s willing to offer or if he’ll take the qualifying offer and try his hand in unrestricted free agency.