3 internal Utah Jazz co-star candidates for Lauri Markkanen
By Jack Simone
Walker Kessler
This is the obvious answer.
After years of having a star center in town in Rudy Gobert, the Utah Jazz stumbled into another one as Walker Kessler emerged as a promising building block.
“Stumbled their way” might be a bit disrespectful, as Danny Ainge absolutely knows what he’s doing, but not many people could have predicted Kessler to be as great as he was during his rookie season.
First and foremost, he looks like an elite defensive specimen. He may not get to the Defensive Player of the Year level Gobert was at, but at the very least, he can be a defensive star.
As far as his offensive game goes, he has an entire offseason to work on it, whether that be adding a jump shot, getting more comfortable in the post, or improving his pick-and-roll game even further.
Kessler’s stardom won’t be defined by his point totals (though getting up to the 15 PPG range could be a serious help). Instead, it will be reflected in his rebounding and block totals.
With the floor-spacing Markkanen by his side—a perfect pairing—Kessler has a ton of freedom to just play his game. If he can average a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double with two blocks, that’s pretty close to a great co-star. And he’s still only 21 years old.