WalkerKessler

Preseason question: Is Kessler ready for the biggest opportunity of his career? In theory, he might be the platonic ideal of what a Luka Doncic–led team needs from a center: an outstanding screener who flows into open space as a roll man, a quick leaper who has proved himself to be one of the game’s best offensive rebounders, and an angle-erasing big man in the drop whose fluid movement allows him to make up a ton of ground recovering on defense. He is currently one of only five players in NBA history to play at least 200 games with a career field goal percentage of at least 68 percent. The rub? The stakes are much higher now. Being asked to anchor the defense for a potential contender like the Lakers comes with completely different expectations compared to playing for a Jazz organization that hasn’t cared about the win column since Kessler entered the league. The big man was available for roughly half of Utah’s regular-season games over the past three years. The Lakers are almost unreasonably dependent on Kessler’s ability to stay healthy and produce on both ends of the floor. He has all the talent to make it work; it’s more a matter of structural integrity.