​We’ve already gotten plenty of fireworks this offseason. Giannis Antetokounmpo is heading to the Miami Heat. LaMelo Ball is joining Anthony Edwards in Minnesota. Just yesterday, the Toronto Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard again.On the actual free agency front, we are, impressively at this stage, monitoring the status of LeBron James. The news — and later, confirmation from the man himself — that he’d be playing elsewhere set the sports world ablaze. It also leads to a pair of obvious questions:1) Where is LeBron going to end up?2) In light of the Lakers officially shifting to the Luka Dončić Era, how do they plan to build a contender around him?Our own Kevin O’Connor recently ranked the field, but we have some time before we get the actual answer on LeBron’s next stop. We’vegotten plenty of answers to the second question, though. They officially kicked off their offseason last week by bringing back Austin Reaves on a four-year, $185 million max deal. As for outside free agents, they swung a sign-and-trade for Jazz restricted free agent center Walker Kessler, then agreed to terms with a forward in Sandro Mamukelashvili, a wing in Quentin Grimes and a guard in Collin Sexton.(Somehow, we were alerted to all four of those outside acquisitions within 35 minutes of each other. Talk about a whirlwind!)There’s still plenty of time for the Lakers to make other margin moves, but this initial wave of moves certainly warrants some analysis.Let’s dig in, shall we?Why was the price so high for Walker Kessler?My earnest answer: While the intentions were positive and small market-minded, the concept of restricted free agency is an absolute scam. The more practical answer: Because of the match rules tied to restricted free agents — incumbent teams have a right to match an offer sheet from an outside team, allowing them to keep young talent — outside teams have to provide ample incentive to pry away said talent.That can be done in a couple of ways. You can drop the bag, hoping to present a price tag so high that the team decides not to match. You can also attempt to work out a sign-and-trade, offering picks (or other players) as an incentive so a team won’t match the offer sheet.The Lakers chose the latter: sending two unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, along with first-round swap rights in 2028 and 2030 for the right to give Kessler a four-year, $130 million deal. I don’t think the Jazz ever wanted to lose Kessler, but it’s hard to turn down that kind of pick haul.Is Walker Kessler actually worth that contract and haul?There’s going to be some natural sticker stock when it comes to the Kessler contract, though I’d say:There’s an inherent level of “overpaying” when trying to pry a restricted free agent away from his original team.While it may seem “nerdy,” it makes more sense to look at the percentage of cap a deal takes up instead of the pure dollar figure. The good folks at Spotrac project Kessler’s year-one salary to take up 18.3% of