The Los Angeles Lakers look smarter by the day for vetoing a trade for now Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams. After playing 60 games in his debut season in The Valley (a career high), Williams is set to miss significant time to begin the season due to a torn labrum in his non-shooting shoulder that required surgery. Yet, the price the Lakers paid to get their own big man was steep, and Walker Kessler’s production in the Purple and Gold is sure to be scrutinized through that lens.
Pressure is on Walker Kessler as Lakers’ new choice to be franchise center
Although Williams had a solid debut season for the Suns, playing in the aforementioned career-high 60 games while leading Phoenix in rebounding and finishing second on the team in win shares behind only All-Star Devin Booker, health issues continue to derail his career.
It now seems Los Angeles made the correct call to veto a trade for Williams due to a rumored failed physical exam before Phoenix acquired him. However, that decision led to surrendering a whopping four first-round draft picks (two swaps) to the Utah Jazz for Kessler.
In some ways, the Lakers are now going down a similar path to the Suns by mortgaging their future draft capital for win-now pieces. The Lakers remain in a better position than Phoenix until proven otherwise, but the Kessler acquisition carries its own level of inherent risk.
The hulking 7-foot-2 center played just five games for Utah a season ago before suffering the exact injury Williams is now recovering from—a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Kessler does not have an extensive injury history beyond that, though his career high in games played remains the 74 contests he played as a rookie in 2022-23.
When healthy, Kessler is among the best defensive centers in the sport. That’s a standard he must continue to meet when healthy to justify the massive haul LA gave up to acquire him.
Speaking on his Game Theory Podcast, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie echoed that sentiment when asked what Kessler has to do to justify LA’s faith in him.
“To justify that deal, he has to be one of the five best defenders in the league,” Vecenie said. “And I actually think he has a chance to do that, for what it’s worth.”
When healthy, Kessler is among the best interior defenders in basketball
Unlike Williams, whose rim protection numbers leave much to be desired—especially compared to the Suns’ other bigs, Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach—Kessler has proven himself to be one of the better rim protectors in the sport.
During the 2024-25 season, Kessler finished seventh in the league in defended field goal percentage within six feet of the basket among players who played at least 40 games. Filtering for players who defended at least 2.5 such attempts per game, only Victor Wembanyama, Daniel Gafford, and Kristaps Porzingis were better than Kessler.
Few players utilize their size on the interior as well as Kessler does. He averages 2.4 blocks per game in his career and has also been a monster on the offensive glass, averaging 4.6 offensive rebounds over the past two seasons—Williams averaged 3.1 of them a season ago, by contrast.
Like Williams, Kessler’s health is the primary factor to watch. At least for now, the Lakers are the team with a healthy starting center to begin the season. Whether he justifies the four first-rounders LA surrendered to get him remains to be seen.
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