The Los Angeles Lakers are expecting big things of Walker Kessler this season. They love both his skill-set and how it fits alongside their star duo of Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves. It’s why they were willing to send a pair of first-round picks and first-round pick swaps to the Utah Jazz while inking Kessler to a four-year, $130 million deal this summer. To help achieve those big things, Kessler and Lakers head coach JJ Redick are latching onto a singular word, one they think should reverberate
through Kessler’s approach all over the floor.
“The word I’ve used with him, the challenge is just being relentless. Just in terms of the motor on both ends, running the floor, diving, screening, crashing the glass, playing off Luka and [Reaves],” Redick told reporters Tuesday after Kessler made his preseason debut. “He’s going to have opportunities to playmake in the pocket. That’s just the nature of how teams guard those two guys. His stats are going to naturally come just from playing hard. I thought he did a great job of that. Again, that’s like a very encouraging thing when you have multiple guys on the team that you feel like are going to do the little stuff that maybe doesn’t always show up in a box score, but helps the team.”
Kessler left a positive impression to open his Lakers tenure, with 11 points (4-of-6 shooting), nine rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors. He knows if he plays relentlessly, high-level impact should follow, so he intends to try and maximize every single possession, which will manifest in array of ways that benefit Los Angeles.
“JJ and I talked and that’s kind of what we came up with this year is relentless,” Kessler said. “For me, that means just crashing every time, trying to be a presence in the paint, run, play hard, don’t take plays off on the offensive end, defensive end. So that’s going to be my goal for this year.”
Kessler’s next opportunity to embody that relentless mantra comes Friday against the Denver Nuggets in the Lakers’ preseason finale before their regular season kicks off Oct. 21 at home facing the Warriors.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
