The Los Angeles Lakers‘ polarizing commerce for Walker Kessler could assist star Luka Dončić in methods by no means thought potential. Kessler may not be who many Lakers followers have been hoping for when the offseason started, however he’s clearly anticipated to be a giant a part of the Lakers going ahead.
In any case, they traded the entire remaining first-round picks to amass him from the Utah Jazz and signed him to a $130 million deal. That’s positively a dangerous transfer contemplating he missed nearly all of final season and hasn’t performed on a playoff workforce simply but.
Regardless of that, he possesses elite rim safety and rebounding, seemingly making him the perfect match to anchor the Lakers‘ protection and make life simpler on Doncic. Sadly for Kessler, the Lakers did him no favors with the remainder of their offseason strikes.
Walker Kessler will assist the Lakers unlock Luka Doncic like by no means earlier than
Kessler must work doubly laborious to cowl up for different Lakers‘ shortcomings, together with Doncic. Doncic is well-known for being a horrible defender, however he hasn’t performed with a rim protector pretty much as good as Kessler at any level in his profession.
Sure, he performed with some stable facilities in Dallas, however nobody close to pretty much as good as Kessler at defending the basket. Doncic will not have to fret as a lot about opposing groups attacking him defensively when the Lakers can shut down the paint due to a 7’1″ behemoth.
Offensively, Kessler is not the standard athletic rim runner that Doncic is understood to desire. However, he is 7’1, units laborious screens, and has respectable palms, making him a succesful lob menace.
On the very least, Kessler ought to do a greater job than Deandre Ayton at releasing Doncic up by setting bodily screens. That ought to enable Doncic to get downhill extra simply. That might spell hassle for opposing defenses who have already got a nightmarish time stopping Doncic.
Walker Kessler will assist make life simpler for Luka Doncic
The Lakers are seemingly banking on having an elite offense with a extra Doncic-centric workforce. It is fully potential that that may work out of their favor given his monitor document in Dallas.
Bear in mind, he had one in all his greatest seasons final yr, averaging 33.5 factors per sport and exhibiting what skinny Luka is all about. With extra offensive items round him, he might simply assist Los Angeles be a high 5 offensive workforce.
After all, they would not go far with out having no less than a league-average protection. They might have achieved a significantly better job of including extra defensive items to assist their trigger on the tip of the ground, and it might restrict their ceiling.
Then once more, they clearly have lots of religion in Kessler to anchor the paint and drive defenders to take powerful pictures to the rim. It is often an incredible recipe for no less than a good protection, and if he can assist them attain that stage, then Doncic will do the remainder.
Observe
