Walker Kessler is hardly the first NBA player to post a video like this. The new Los Angeles Lakers center is in the gym, lifting weights, cold-plunging, doing agility drills and slamming basketballs. He may, though, be the first to share a summer workout mixtape video to the twangs of a Zach Bryan ballad.

The details with Kessler all matter. He’s the biggest swing the Lakers took this summer, the richest bet they made. He cost the Lakers $130 million, two unprotected first-round picks and two unprotected first-round swaps.

Kessler, who turned 25 Sunday, played in just five games last season and 58 the year before, numbers that are, in part, explainable in the context of the Utah Jazz’s conservative approach to injuries while aggressively pursuing the best possible draft lottery odds. But it’s also one of the key reasons why some rival scouts and executives have been critical of the Lakers’ plan.

“He better be good,” said one Western Conference scout who, like other sources in this story, was granted anonymity to discuss teams’ strategies. The words were cloaked in an “or else” tone.

Part of the reason so much hinges on Kessler is the way the Lakers and Luka Dončić prioritized him. Another part is that the Lakers have only Kevon Looney as a backup. Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jarred Vanderbilt are in pencil further down the Lakers’ depth chart, but neither would be capable of playing center on a full-time basis should they need to.

Looney played only 21 games last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, in his first year outside of Golden State. He played 314 total regular-season games in the four prior seasons — a remarkable run of durability, with only Jonas Valančiūnas appearing in more games at center. For Looney, who entered the NBA with a hip injury, the games and minutes crashing the glass and setting bruising screens for the Warriors had to have some cumulative impact, limiting his mobility and, last season, his availability.

Between Looney’s 21 games and the five Kessler played last season, the Lakers are, according to team and league sources, hunting for reinforcement at the center position. But that search won’t be easy. The center market is largely a mess. In addition, the Lakers already have 16 guaranteed contracts and no open roster spots.

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The Lakers, it appeared, were ready to roll with Deandre Ayton at center — with Jaxson Hayes leaving for Utah — until the team was able to snag a pair of second-round picks from the Washington Wizards for Ayton.

While Los Angeles believes in Kessler and he was either near or at the absolute top of Dončić’s wish list, scarcity undoubtedly played a role in the cost the Lakers had to pay. Had it not been Kessler, the Lakers, according to team and league sources, would’ve likely tried to sign free agent center Mitchell Robinson, who left the New York Knicks to sign a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston.

Robinson is one of 13 different centers to sign deals for more than the minimum this summer, a group that includes players like Jock Landale ($14.1 million this season), Robert Williams III ($14 million), Jusuf Nurkić ($11 million), Day’Ron Sharpe ($10 million), Moe Wagner ($9.5 million) and Quinten Post ($8.7 million).

Nick Richards, Drew Eubanks and Xavier Tillman are among the centers currently unsigned, and any team entertaining trading one of its centers will be operating from a strong position. Supply is low. Cost is high. And the Lakers might need to pay.

While it’s unclear how the Lakers will attack this roster hole, conversations with both team and league sources revealed the types of players Los Angeles could chase.

Jericho Sims, Bucks

Sims fits the run-and-jump archetype that you’d love to put around Dončić because he’s big and a tremendous athlete. He’s currently slated as the Bucks’ No. 3 center behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware. Scouts have defensive concerns away from the basket, and Sims has never really been able to produce consistently. But he’s a dunker and rebounder whom the Lakers could use second-round draft capital to try and pry loose.

Jalen Smith, Bulls

Smith has some fans within the organization because he plays with motor and has worked himself into a pretty good outside shooter. But Smith is expensive (two years, $18 million remaining on his deal) and undersized at 6-foot-8. The previous Bulls’ regime was a fan of his, which puts his actual availability into question.

Karlo Matković, Pelicans

Looney became a free agent in New Orleans when the team declined his option for next year, a move the Pelicans made a day after officially picking up Matković’s option. While he’s a bit of a tweener at power forward and center, Matković has a lot of fans around the NBA. The trouble is, New Orleans has signaled to intrigued teams this summer that it doesn’t have interest in trading him.

Unsigned free agents

Richards is probably the biggest name here thanks to his counting stats and experience as a part-time starter, but his inability to consistently impact winning has kept teams from getting all that excited.

Eubanks has fans, but again, the consistency, especially on the defensive side, is why he’s looking for an NBA home. Vets like Bismack Biyombo, Mason Plumlee and Dwight Powell aren’t exactly the kinds of players the Lakers could count on for 10 starts in the middle of January should they need them.

If there doesn’t sound like there’s an obvious answer here, it’s because there isn’t. Other names could shake loose, either via buyout or trade. But the position, on a league-wide level, is in high demand.