It was a bit of a bumpy road in Salt Lake City this past year for the Utah Jazz, who suffered from their second-straight losing season with its fair share of ups and downs throughout. Finishing with a final record of 31-51, this squad is set for another appearance at the NBA lottery next month.
The team’s rebuild is moving at a steady, productive pace after two seasons, but nobody wants to lose games. To close out this season, the Jazz ended the season going 5-21 after the All-Star break, effectively helping out their lottery prospects. As a result, it seems there could have been some rumored tension breaking through in the locker room.
According to ESPN’s Spence Checketts, second-year center Walker Kessler may not be pleased with the trajectory Utah had been on through the season, with a potential unknown quarrel happening between he and coach Will Hardy sometime during the year:
“Keyonte [George], Taylor [Hendricks], Brice [Sensabaugh], Walker [Kessler] under contract and back next year, I think. I would be stunned if any of these four are on the move. There’s some rumors about Walker not being thrilled with the direction of the franchise, and something happened between he and Will this year. I can’t speak to it.”
While the actual substance of the “something” that happened between Hardy and Walker is foggy, it’s not a situation unreasonable to envision. This season was full of challenges for Kessler. He got faced with a couple of injuries to begin and end the year, unpredictable minutes within the nightly rotation, and new pieces being added into the existing frontcourt from the offseason, all on top of an already difficult jump to make in year two.
He still managed to establish himself with averages of 8.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks on 65.4/21.1/60.0 splits. However, without a substantial minute increase from his first season (23.0 MPG to 23.3 MPG), his counting stats didn’t see the major jump that fans could have expected before the year after being a ROTY finalist in 2022-23.
There’s still hope for Kessler’s future in Utah despite a confusing second-year stint with the Jazz. He’ll be going into the third NBA Summer League of his career in the coming months, providing an opportunity to truly show out and generate more importance amongst the coaching staff heading into year three.