The many ways Walker Kessler won over coaches, teammates, fans during rookie season

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Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler looks on during a break in play during game at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. | Ryan Sun, Deseret News

Editor’s note: Twelfth in a series evaluating and grading every player that was on the Jazz’s final 2022-23 roster.

Sometimes it is best to look at a player’s performance in a vacuum and sometimes it’s just impossible to ignore context and history and the future.

With Walker Kessler, I don’t know how you look at his rookie year without also taking into consideration what the Utah Jazz gave up and got in return in the trade that landed Kessler. Rudy Gobert will forever be tied to Kessler’s career story and before the 2022-23 season began, that seemed daunting. But, Kessler’s performance this season has all but squashed all doubt and worry and it was a huge part of why the Jazz look like the absolute winners of the blockbuster trade from last summer.

Walker Kessler — Grade: A+

On Monday, Kessler was named to the NBA’s All-Rookie First Team, he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting and has the stats to back up the accolades.

Kessler finished the season averaging 9.2 points on 72% shooting from the field to go with 8.4 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. His 2.3 blocks per game were higher than any other rookie this season and ranked fourth across the entire NBA.

After the All-Star break, Kessler averaged a double-double of 12.4 points on 73.6% shooting to go with 10.8 rebounds as well as 3.3 blocks per game, which led the NBA. Let’s not forget, he was just the No. 22 overall pick in the 2022 draft.

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Everything that I’ve said is already enough to warrant an A grade for the season. But then you get into the nuance and the growth and the 21-year-old’s personality and that’s where he gets the “+.”

First, I want to address what I said up top. When the Jazz traded away Gobert, they got a haul of assets, plus players, which included Kessler. The future draft picks were and remain the grand prize of the trade, but Kessler is a close second.

When you give up a player that is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, there are of course…

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Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2023-05-12 20:00:00

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