One of the biggest knocks on Walker Kessler from his time with the Utah Jazz was his limited offensive arsenal. Many did not believe in his upside as a scoring option. The Los Angeles Lakers have quickly worked to challenge that notion.
Kessler has scored 20 points or more twice this season. That is already equal to what he did in his last full season during 2024-25 with the Jazz. For obvious reasons, the five-game campaign from 2025-26 was skipped over, but for what it is worth, Walker did that twice in that small sample size as well.
One would imagine there are plenty more 20-point games on the way for Kessler in 2026-27. With the gifted playmaking of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, it is almost impossible to believe the Lakers center will not break 20 again. When all is said and done, the anticipation of a career year for Walker as a scorer is incredibly warranted.
Walker Kessler has everything he needs for a career year as a scorer
Some have looked at Kessler's two-point performance against his former team in the latest outing for the Lakers as a concerning sign of him being a threat to disappear on offense. That assessment is unfair to what the Jazz defense opted to do when guarding him.
Utah sold out to slow down the roll in the actions involving Kessler. It was not a matter of him simply playing poorly, or anything of that sort. The Jazz had a calculated strategy to force the Lakers to beat them through other means. Doncic and Reaves both proved more than capable of that.
That right there also speaks to how Kessler can be a positive on offense even when he is not scoring the basketball. If defenses choose to take away the roll and cut off his lobs, the Lakers players around him will get easier opportunities to score themselves. Los Angeles still gets what they want.
How many times are teams really going to make that a primary focus, though?
It was a bold proposition on the Jazz's part to say there would be no easy offense for Kessler via Doncic and Reaves. It resulted in Luka dropping 52 and Reaves scoring an efficient 29 points. It is safe to say the strategy failed.
Doncic and Reaves are both way too good at what they do as scorers to not give up opportunities for them to beat you as playmakers. When that opening is there, Kessler should be able to take advantage of it as he did in the first two games. That poises him to erupt on any given night.
Scoring the ball for Kessler will be easy. It is just a matter of bringing effort and good positioning. Doncic and Reaves will find him.
Kessler has averaged 9.6 points per game throughout his career thus far. His career-high in any given year, excluding his brief five-game stint in 2025-26, is 11.1 points per game. Given what has been on display in the early goings of 2026-27, expecting him to blow past that number is a safe prediction.
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