Lakers’ Walker Kessler move makes Mavericks look even worse for Luka Doncic trade

The Dallas Mavericks completely whiffed in February of 2025 when then-GM Nico Harrison made the ill-advised decision to trade Luka Doncic, Markieff Morris, and Maki Kleber to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. The Lakers' drastic overpay for Walker Kessler earlier today further justifies how terrible the Doncic trade was.

Los Angeles traded two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 to the Utah Jazz for Kessler, and they also relinquished two first-round pick swaps in 2028 and 2030. Kessler was a restricted free agent, so this ended up being a sign-and-trade where Los Angeles signed him to a massive four-year $130 million contract.

While this may have been the only way they were going to pry him away from Utah, it cannot be underscored how much draft capital they gave Utah for Kessler in comparison to how much the Lakers gave up for Doncic. Regardless of the fact that Dallas got Davis in the Doncic deal, someone who was still looked at as a superstar at the time of the trade, the lack of draft capital Dallas got in return for a top-five player in the league will be embarrassing till the end of time.

The Kessler trade makes Dallas' Doncic trade look even worse

Sure, the market in the NBA shifts all the time, and it's not easy to sign restricted free agents outright in today's league, but there's simply no world where the Jazz should be getting four times the amount of draft capital for Kessler compared to what Dallas got for Doncic.

Even if one wants to make the argument that Dallas eventually turned Davis into a first-round pick that Dallas ultimately flipped for Sergio De Larrea at No. 25 in this past draft, the Lakers still got far more draft capital for Kessler than Dallas did for Doncic.

Davis' constant injuries in Dallas didn't help the value proposition that Harrison gambled on when he traded Doncic, but he should've at least gotten two more unprotected first-round picks from the Lakers or some more swaps. The Lakers were able to use some of the draft capital they didn't have to use in the Doncic deal to ultimately acquire a center of Doncic's liking in Kessler, which just speaks volumes to how colossal a failure Harrison's Doncic trade was.

LA's Kessler overpay doesn't match Dallas' Doncic disaster

Kessler has the potential to become an All-Star center if everything goes right for him, but ultimately this is a young center who has just played 20 more games in the past two seasons than Dallas' own injury-riddled young big man, Dereck Lively II. The Lakers weren't trading for a gigantic proven commodity here, nor someone who has any playoff experience, and they still gave up the house to get him.

The Lakers made multiple moves today to add to Kessler, including signing former Maverick Quentin Grimes. The structure of the roster they've built is extremely reliant on how they can perform offensively, and it's hard to argue they could compete with the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs right now, which doesn't bode well for Doncic staying with them long-term.

This could give credence to a Doncic reunion in Dallas one day, since Dallas has done a huge overhaul in their front office, but of course this is far from guaranteed. Practically every major trade in the NBA since February of 2025 continues to show how badly Harrison missed the mark on what type of value Doncic should've demanded in a trade, and the Kessler-to-Los Angeles sign-and-trade is one of the biggest indictments of Harrison's inability to extract proper value for a superstar player.

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