The Utah Jazz are better off with Walker Kessler than without him. They've won two of their last seven games since he played his last game of the season. However, with him out, his absence has unleashed a surprisingly dominant two-man lineup: the pairing of Lauri Markkanen and Kyle Filipowski.
The two had already shown their dominance when paired with Kessler before his injury earlier this season. So it's not the biggest surprise for anyone who has been paying close attention. Nonetheless, the numbers speak for themselves. Per Databallr, the two have a net rating of plus-16.4 in the 127 minutes they've played thus far.
Part of this can certainly be attributed to Markkanen being an all-around beast this season by scoring at a historic rate. However, when comparing the net rating of those two with the Jazz's other popular two-man lineups featuring Markkanen, it's clear how well those two have fit together.
-The pairing of Markkanen with Keyonte George (minus-6.1)
-With Svi Mykhailiuk (completely neutral)
-With Jusuf Nurkic (minus-11.9)
Markkanen's net rating with Kessler is quite good, but that's not currently relevant to the Jazz's season. Anyway, it happens more often than people would think that players with redundant skillsets don't fit well together, but as seven-foot stretch bigs that bring so much offensively, Filipowski and Markkanen surprisingly fit quite snugly together, it seems.
Until there's evidence that indicate that the pairing doesn't work, the Jazz have no reason not to see this through going forward.
Even crazier is how much better they could get together
What makes this data surprising most of all is the fact that Filipowski has had a bit of a sophomore slump this season. Averaging 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 39.7% from the field and 31.4% from three. It's normal for second-year players to struggle a bit, but it's safe to say that because of how Filipowski has played in the past, it's definitely possible he may get better.
If and when he does, Filipowski and Markkanen together could make the Jazz look even more exciting than they already are. It's still a little ambiguous how this season will go for Utah, but there's already so much more to be excited about this season compared to last.
There's not much else anyone can ask of Markkanen, as this is the best he's ever looked as a Jazzman. If Filipowski were to say ascend should the possibility of Markkanen taking a little step back, that could also work in the Jazz's favor.
No one asked things to play out like this. In a perfect world, the Jazz could have seen what Filipowski, Markkanen, and Kessler look for an entire season. However, data like this shows the Jazz's future should only get more exciting from here.