Walker Kessler Discussion: Rim Protector And Lob Threat

Walker is so good he is already making most forget AD. Impressive.

 

AD is one of the best defenders in history, but it's a different kind of defense to Kessler. AD was kind of a do it all, I don't include him haha

 

Kaman... the Kleber of defensive centers

 

Don't do that

I still have bad feelings about that day and try to forget

Lol

 

Interesting, so I had assumed that Kessler did have a serious injury early last season. That maybe didn’t need to be a full season injury but Utah chose to play conservatively in order to tank.

I think the implication here is that wasn’t quite the case. That Kessler didn’t really experience any acute injury that needed surgery, it was something he could and had already been playing through just fine. He chose to get the surgery early because he saw the writing on the wall with Utah and wanted to get the shoulder cleaned up to put himself in the best shape long term.

From that lens, you could almost look at his missed time last year as a positive. He avoided accumulating more wear and tear while taking steps to get his shoulder in the best shape it’s ever been.

 

I think it's more sinister than that.

Utah had already tried to lowball Kessler and with Danny Ainge at the helm, he's always been a tough negotiator who knew how to get the best value contract signings.

From Walker's perspective, he probably had an inkling that Ainge was trying to intentionally lowball his value around the league by making Walker an injury concern to get teams to lower their offer.

Unfortunately for Ainge, centers are just in high demand and I think a lot of teams knew what they were trying to do. Pretty sure Walker's agent also brought that up in free agency meetings that Utah was trying to intentionally lower his value. Tough for a player to really get past that when their boss is trying to screw them over so I can see why Walker was very intent on getting the absolute most he can from Utah or was going to walk.

If they had a better relationship, Walker might have stayed and taken a bit less.

Plus, you have to be very weary with Ainge in general. It was the right move not giving Isaiah Thomas that huge extension when he got injured from a team management perspective but players 100% know he can't be trusted with their careers.

 

I really enjoy these well thought out positive posts. We are building for long term success and championships. I hear a clanking of mugs in our near future.

 

What are we drinking coffee to celebrate?

 

Here's another one for bellying up to your clanking of Alaskan Amber mugs.

 

OK, it's coffee!!

 

You guys left out Congo Cash in the list of Laker Greats at C.

 

Walker Kessler says he'll 'run through a brick wall' for Lakers

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/49352392/walker-kessler-says-run-brick-wall-lakers

 

Great summary by Tony Jones who followed him in Utah. Some highlights:

- elite rim protector, potential to be Gobert-like and give you a top10 defense on his own
- great rim runner
- poor screen setter
- is always in great shape and is able to do constant screens in the same possession
- to be confirmed how he handles LA pressure as he comes from the opposite pole (Utah and tanking). Personally I feel he really wants this and will come good
- upside to be All-Defensive NBA team a few times and All-star a couple ones

I think Looney (and Luka) will help him a lot in learning to screen better

 

Top 10 defense on his own? I love the offseason; boundless enthusiasm

 

I think he puts us in Top 15-20 this year. With another good defensive wing, we'd be Top 10-15. That's good enough to win a title with the offense we have.

 

I don't think you read well what I wrote.

He's a beat writer for The Athletic for Utah and Philly. So not really Lakers bias.

And he said he sees Kessler ceiling as Gobert, mentioning Rudy is able to give you a top10 defense by himself, regardless of the players around him. Rudy was in Utah before Kessler, so he knows a bit about him.
He didn't said we're going to be a top10 defense nor that it will happen. He said Kessler has the ceiling to be that type of player.
If he gets there or not, we will all see.

Regarding the Lakers for this year, he was confident we remain well positioned to be #3 seed. I don't think it will happen, but encouraging to hear from a guy who looks like knows ball

 

That's fair. As @abeer3 noted, we need another defensive minded wing, and I think we'll be fine defensively.

 

I was responding to the quote. Peak..Gobert doesn't give you a top 10 defense by himself either. " Regardless of the players around him" is ridiculous.




As far as the campaign;we have a lot of new bodies; I expect it's going to take some time to gel as a team. I'm thinking 5-7..in the West that could be a separation of 2-3 games.

 

Fortunately for us, Kessler isn't alone. We have some other erasers in Ziaire, Adou, and Carr. Adou might develop into a passable MWP clone. We have a bunch of high energy hustle guys with length. Austin is always fighting on defense. He has his back covered with Walker now and Luka has his own way of covering passing lanes. And we still have Vando until we don't. Too many pieces to go through them all. If JJ can't put together a defense with what he has, he isn't the coach most of us think he is. On top of that we are going to put up some outrageous numbers on offense. If we can limit turnovers, our defense will be pretty good. We have a lot to be optimistic about, there will always be time later to go howl at the moon if we have health issues and the season goes badly. For now, I'm enjoying the master class Rob displayed.