Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler has a lot of qualities that make him look like a player who will remain in the league for a long time. Now in his third season, the 23-year-old certainly can still improve as he begins to reach his prime. Kessler is still looking to develop further deep into the 2024-25 season. That includes expanding his offensive game to the three-point line. While it’s a small sample size, the results thus far haven’t been promising.
The Walker Kessler Experiment Is Not Off To A Roaring Start
Walker Kessler Three-Point Shot Hasn’t Been Falling
The Jazz got blown out by the score of 120-91 on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Now at 16-56, it has been months since Utah has been removed from the playoff picture. While they play out the remaining 10 games, the team will likely give more playing time to their youth. It’s also a time when a player can experiment with something in their game to see if it can be used in future years.
That is what is exactly going on with the 7-foot Kessler. Selected with the 22nd overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, he has some clear strengths. There is plenty of bold font on his Basketball Reference page this season. He is leading the league in blocks (2.4), offensive rebounds (4.6), and two-point accuracy (71.7%). Kessler also was leading in overall field goal percentage up until recently.
The reason he is no longer leading is because of late, Walker Kessler has received the green light to shoot three-pointers. For the most part, it hasn’t been just once or twice a game either. This has been going on for five games now. That’s not exactly a long time, but the three-point experiment hasn’t exactly gotten off to a roaring start.
Over the last five contests, Kessler has connected on just three of his 26 three-point tries (11.5%). He has shot at least five threes in four of the five outings. On Sunday, the Georgia native made just one of his eight three-point attempts. While the Jazz don’t exactly have an elite offense, it has been worse of late. Utah has scored more than 102 points just once in their last five games, since Kessler has been letting it go from deep.
Utah Last In Western Conference
With the Jazz last in the Western Conference and dreaming of winning the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, there isn’t much harm in attempting new things to see if they can be utilized in future seasons. It’s not looking good though for Kessler developing a reliable three-point shot. Prior to this five-game stretch, he had attempted just six three-pointers on the season, making two.
Over his first two NBA seasons, Kessler attempted 22 from deep over 138 games, making five. He did attempt 50 threes in his final college season at Auburn in 2021-22, but he made just 10 (20%).
Scouts usually look at free-throw percentage as an indicator of a player possibly becoming a good three-point shooter later in their career. Kessler certainly isn’t among the most accurate from the charity stripe. He is at just 53.1% in 2024-25 and 54.1% for his career.
With 10 games remaining, let’s see if Jazz head coach Will Hardy continues to let him shoot from deep often or reins him in a bit. Utah next plays on Tuesday at home against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Photo credit: © Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images
