The Jazz have formally issued Walker Kessler a qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent, reports Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Kessler and the Jazz have engaged in contract negotiations during Utah’s exclusive negotiating period. The team reportedly put a five-year offer worth approximately $140MM on the table, but the center and his camp were said to be unhappy about the way those talks were going.
Despite being limited to five games in 2025/26 due to shoulder surgery, Kessler is one of the top free agents on the board this summer, coming in at No. 4 on our top-50 list. The The 7’2″ center, who will turn 25 next month, is one of the NBA’s best rebounders and has shown the potential to be an elite rim protector, having averaged 12.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game in 58 games in 2024/25.
The qualifying offer, which is worth $7,064,702, gives the Jazz the right of first refusal in the event that Kessler signs an offer sheet with another team. The big man also has the option of accepting that offer and playing out the 2026/27 season on a one-year, $7MM deal with an implicit no-trade clause. In that scenario, he could reach unrestricted free agency in 2027. However, there’s still plenty of time for the two sides to reach a longer-term agreement.
Here are more minor transaction-related updates on the Jazz:
- The Jazz won’t tender qualifying offers to two-way players Oscar Tshiebwe and Elijah Harkless, according to Jones (Twitter link). Because both players finished each of the past two seasons on two-way deals with Utah, their qualifying offers would have been equivalent to one-year, minimum-salary contracts with small partial guarantees, rather than another two-way contract.
- Although Tshiebwe and Harkless will become unrestricted free agents and won’t be with the Jazz’s Summer League team, Utah likes Harkless, so there’s still a chance he could return in some capacity, Jones notes.
- The Jazz are declining their minimum-salary team options on Bez Mbeng and Hayden Gray, who signed with the team near the end of the 2025/26 season, league sources tell Jones (Twitter link). They’ll stick with the Jazz for Summer League play, so the team will continue evaluating them, Jones adds. Technically, Mbeng and Gray would’ve been eligible for qualifying offers after having their options declined, but it doesn’t sound like a QO in the cards for either player.
