Jazz make a major decision on Walker Kessler's future after Jaren Jackson Jr. trade

After months of little action taking place on the NBA trade market, we've started to see teams make moves over the past few days.

The NBA Trade Deadline is just 48 hours away, and the Jazz were one of the teams to make a shocking move leading up to the deadline, acquiring former all-star Jaren Jackson Jr.

This is a great addition to the team, but this trade also has massive implications for what the team does in the next two days.

Jazz make a final decision on Walker Kessler after Jaren Jackson Jr. trade

The Jazz have had a pretty poor season, but have set themselves up well with some of their recent draft/trade acquisitions.

They enter next season with a strong young core, but there were questions on whether or not they'd look to trade center Walker Kessler before the trade deadline.

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Kessler is set to become a RFA this summer, but the Jazz have decided they will not trade the fourth-year center (via Brett Siegel).

Kessler suffered an injury early in the season that unfortunately put him out for the entire 2025-26 season, after only playing five games.

Siegel detailed that the Jazz will look to sign Kessler to a long-term contract this summer.

This means the Jazz will potentially have Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ace Bailey under contract until the 2028-29 NBA season (Keyonte George has a team option for next season).

This is a young core of five players that could potentially lift the Jazz to be one of the top teams in the West in a couple of seasons.

In addition to that core of players, Utah could add another rookie in an incoming stacked draft, as they're in a position to get a top-10 pick as it stands.

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