The Utah Jazz made a bold shakeup to their starting five earlier this summer when they decided to ship out their defensive anchor Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Two first-round picks and two pick swaps came to the Jazz, while the Lakers landed Kessler, also paying him a brand-new $130 million contract over four years in the process.

The decision from the Jazz was a bit of a shift compared to what had been rumored leading into the offseason. Utah had felt both interested and motivated to keep Kessler as a long-term piece of their frontcourt, yet struggled to find the right value on his second contract that inevitably led to him hitting restricted free agency.

Combine that with the fact that the Lakers were in desperate need of a long-term center option and willing to pay a premium to land Kessler, it took less than a week into the market opening before Utah was able to strike a deal.

What Austin Ainge Had to Say About Walker Kessler Trade

Jazz President Austin Ainge recently addressed the team's Kessler trade from earlier this offseason in a recent interview with JP Chunga and Eric Spyropoulos.

And in that conversation, Ainge made it known that while the Jazz were debating the move to trade Kessler for around a year, Utah was planning to retain him even as he hit restricted free agency. But in a short amount of time, the Lakers gave up an offer the front office couldn't refuse.

"It's something that we had been talking off and on for a year about, and we really valued Walker," Ainge said of the Kessler trade. "Walker's a good player. And we were planning on keeping him. But that [trade] offer got high enough that we thought it was the right move to make for the Jazz, for building a championship team."

There's some obvious pros and cons to the Jazz's move to trade Kessler. Utah does gain a ton of future draft capital to utilize over the next seven years, and don't have to worry about paying Kessler a pricey multi-year contract.

At the same time, losing Kessler does hurt the Jazz's short-term outlook. Utah gives up their best center on the roster who was a timeline fit and a huge part of their defense, and is due to find a new big man of the future before being able to take that next step in the Western Conference.

In Ainge's mind, though, this current roster has a ton of talent as it is. And the assets that the Jazz have because of that trade with the Lakers give them a ton of flexibility to address any of their needs moving forward––even if the front office might not exactly know how those future picks will be used.

"Those are extremely valuable assets. We'll see when and how we can use those in the future. You can't predict that." Ainge said of the Lakers' picks. "But we think that we have really good players on the roster now, and we're really excited to see this team play."

"And then, we do have both the financial flexibility and the assets to add wherever we find a need, right? And I think that we're excited to take a big step forward this year, see where that takes us, and see what other areas need to be shored up."

While a big swing to take to ship out a homegrown talent like Kessler who fits a need on the roster, the front office is certainly confident in their decision to do so. Not only are they able to remain competitive now, but more importantly, have a route to do keep getting better down the road.

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