The Los Angeles Lakers may have dropped to 2-2 in the preseason after losing by 12 points to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night, but all Lakers Nation cares about is Walker Kessler.
Kessler, the 25-year-old center acquired in a seismic sign-and-trade from the Utah Jazz in the offseason, made his much-awaited debut Tuesday, finally giving fans what they had been waiting for over the last three months. Kessler did a little bit of everything in the time he was on the court after missing the team’s first three preseason games due to a jammed pinkie finger.
It is safe to say that the Lakers will need all of what Kessler delivered last night and then some.
Lakers Marquee Offseason Acquisition Showing Out Early
There was a fair amount of nervousness among fans from the time the Lakers traded all that they did for Kessler before signing him to a mega four-year deal. With how much L.A. invested into Kessler as the big man of the future, let’s just say there was some nervous excitement to see the young big man hit the floor for the first time as a Laker. And did he ever deliver.
“Takeaway No. 1 is Walker Kessler was everything that he was advertised to be — eleven points, nine rebounds in one half of basketball. The rim-running, the rolling, the offensive rebounds, the rim-protection,” said Lakers journalist Jovan Buha. “The Lakers outscored the Warriors by 15 points with Kessler on the floor in a game they lost by (12) points. So quick math, they were outscored by 29 points when Kessler was off the floor. We had seen some of the (Lakers’) limitations without him earlier in the preseason, and that continued tonight, with L.A. unable to protect the defensive glass, protect the rim and (be) ineffective in the pick-and-roll game.
Said Lakers coach JJ Redick after the team’s 89-101 loss in Las Vegas: “He’s a great fit for our team. He did a nice job of running the floor, crashing, had some terrific rebounds in traffic (and) protected the rim. Just (a) really good first half from him. Overall really good for someone who didn’t play for, whatever it is, 10 days.”
Kessler’s Screaming Impact
This performance, in a nutshell, briefly showed why the Lakers didn’t hesitate to spend all that they did to acquire Kessler, as Khobi Price of the California Post noted.
“The No. 22 pick in the 2022 draft made his presence felt in the Lakers’ first possession without recording a statistic in the box score,” Price wrote. “After Austin Reaves missed a pull-up 13-foot jumper out of the pick and roll with Kessler, the big man fought for the offensive rebound, with the ball bouncing off of Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg’s hands and going out of rebounds, resulting in a team offensive rebound for the Lakers.”
Said Kessler after his Lakers preseason debut: “JJ and I talked, and that’s kind of what we came up with this year: ‘Relentless,’ And for me, that means just crashing every time, trying to be a presence in the paint, inside, outside, play hard, don’t take plays off, on the offensive end and defensive end. That’s going to be my goal for this year.”
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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