The Lakers made a lot of noise on Wednesday in NBA Free Agency and the trade market, and fantasy basketball managers need to pay attention.
The big move was a sign-and-trade for Jazz center Walker Kessler, with Los Angeles sending two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps to Utah to land the 24-year-old, who then signed a four-year, $130 million extension to make it official.
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From a real-life standpoint, the money is fine ($32.5M annually), but the draft capital that came with it was a gross overpay. After bringing in Kessler, the Lakers invested $475 million in Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Kessler, with no tradable picks for seven years. Sheesh! But, from a fantasy standpoint, this is a very good move. Let’s talk about it.
Walker Kessler
Kessler only appeared in five games last season due to injury. But I think that’s an outlier — not the norm. He’s been at or near 60 games played in every other season of his NBA career, and the $130 million guarantee tells you everything you need to know about his minutes expectations. You don’t pay someone that kind of money to not play over 30-plus minutes a night.
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Playing alongside Dončić significantly elevates his ceiling. The good thing about Kessler is that he’s a beast defensively. He works hard, has shown improvement over the past few seasons offensively and the Lakers needed someone to fortify their frontcourt; he’s the opposite of Deandre Ayton (a good thing). And Luka’s playmaking will create easy looks for Kessler around the rim. His rim protection and rebounding don’t require touches to be impactful. He’s a legitimate top-50 fantasy target — possibly higher. I love this move for his fantasy value. But those picks man… Rob Pelinka’s trippin’.
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Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton
The Lakers’ roster construction isn’t fully settled yet. However, Pelinka’s Wednesday spending spree didn’t afford them too much flexibility in bringing in anyone else beyond a veteran minimum. So, if there are no additional trades, Mamu and Grimes could join the starting unit. Mamukelashvili is the most intriguing of the bunch — he’s a versatile big who can stretch the floor and did solid work in a bench role in Toronto. He was a solid streamer who, with an expanded starting role, could be worth a late-round flier. Grimes having to play third wheel with Luka and Reaves isn’t ideal, and his fantasy value would probably be higher in a reserve role where he’s playing with one of Luka and Reaves rather than both.
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Sexton is a known scoring option off the bench but profiles similarly — a streaming option at best in most formats should an injury occur.
The honest answer here is that, from a real-life standpoint, the Lakers spent a lot of money to be so light on perimeter defense and frontcourt depth — especially at PF. As it stands, Mamukelashvili is on my watchlist as the most likely sleeper of the group, but Kessler is by far the biggest winner here.
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