Walker Kessler Discussion: Rim Protector And Lob Threat

Walker is so good he is already making most forget AD. Impressive.

 

AD is one of the best defenders in history, but it's a different kind of defense to Kessler. AD was kind of a do it all, I don't include him haha

 

Kaman... the Kleber of defensive centers

 

Don't do that

I still have bad feelings about that day and try to forget

Lol

 

Interesting, so I had assumed that Kessler did have a serious injury early last season. That maybe didn’t need to be a full season injury but Utah chose to play conservatively in order to tank.

I think the implication here is that wasn’t quite the case. That Kessler didn’t really experience any acute injury that needed surgery, it was something he could and had already been playing through just fine. He chose to get the surgery early because he saw the writing on the wall with Utah and wanted to get the shoulder cleaned up to put himself in the best shape long term.

From that lens, you could almost look at his missed time last year as a positive. He avoided accumulating more wear and tear while taking steps to get his shoulder in the best shape it’s ever been.

 

I think it's more sinister than that.

Utah had already tried to lowball Kessler and with Danny Ainge at the helm, he's always been a tough negotiator who knew how to get the best value contract signings.

From Walker's perspective, he probably had an inkling that Ainge was trying to intentionally lowball his value around the league by making Walker an injury concern to get teams to lower their offer.

Unfortunately for Ainge, centers are just in high demand and I think a lot of teams knew what they were trying to do. Pretty sure Walker's agent also brought that up in free agency meetings that Utah was trying to intentionally lower his value. Tough for a player to really get past that when their boss is trying to screw them over so I can see why Walker was very intent on getting the absolute most he can from Utah or was going to walk.

If they had a better relationship, Walker might have stayed and taken a bit less.

Plus, you have to be very weary with Ainge in general. It was the right move not giving Isaiah Thomas that huge extension when he got injured from a team management perspective but players 100% know he can't be trusted with their careers.

 

I really enjoy these well thought out positive posts. We are building for long term success and championships. I hear a clanking of mugs in our near future.

 

What are we drinking coffee to celebrate?

 

Here's another one for bellying up to your clanking of Alaskan Amber mugs.