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Optimism in Salt Lake City has taken a major hit. Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler will miss the rest of the 2025–26 NBA season after undergoing surgery to repair a left shoulder labral tear, the team announced Wednesday.
Kessler had started Utah’s first five games of the season and was initially listed out with left shoulder bursitis.
But after further evaluation, the injury proved far more severe than first thought.
The 23-year-old big man was in the midst of a breakout campaign. Through five games, he was averaging 14.4 points per contest on an efficient 70.3 percent shooting, while also pulling down 10.8 rebounds per game. More importantly, he had quickly emerged as one of the NBA’s most promising rim protectors.
We announced today that center Walker Kessler will undergo surgery to repair a left shoulder labral tear.
The procedure will be performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Nov. 6. Following the surgery, Kessler will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season.
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— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 5, 2025
“He was having the best season of his career,” a team official told NBC Sports’ Kurt Helin. “It’s tough because he’d taken a real step forward on both ends of the floor.”
The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Kessler, who is set to become a restricted free agent this coming offseason.
“There will still be teams interested in the big man, but this is not helping him earn the contract he hoped to land,” Helin wrote.
Kessler’s journey has been anything but ordinary. Drafted 22nd overall in 2022, he was traded twice before ever playing a professional minute, eventually landing in Utah as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Rudy Gobert to Minnesota. Those were big shoes to fill, but Kessler’s play had given Jazz fans real hope that another defensive cornerstone was emerging.
With Kessler sidelined, the Jazz are expected to rely more heavily on Jusuf Nurkic, rookie Kyle Filipowski, and veteran Kevin Love to fill the void in the frontcourt.
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