LOS ANGELES – Aside from re-signing budding star Austin Reaves, the Los Angeles Lakers’ top priority coming into the offseason was to acquire a true starting center. They may have given up quite a haul, but the Lakers believe they have found their new franchise big man in incoming fifth-year center Walker Kessler.

During a preseason press conference with media last week, Lakers head coach JJ Redick was unable to hide his excitement when talking about the ways in which Walker Kessler changes what the team is able to do defensively. He is a true rim protector that the Lakers guards and wings can funnel opposing ball-handlers into.

And during Monday’s Media Day, several of Kessler’s teammates, including Matisse Thybulle, Jake LaRavia, Collin Sexton and Quentin Grimes expressed excitement of their own at being able to pressure the ball more and take more risks defensively on the perimeter knowing that Kessler is behind them.

But it’s not just defensively where Kessler can make an impact, he has a solid offensive game as well. An offensive game that has evolved since he’s come into the NBA and has included expanding his shooting range to the 3-point line.

“I’m very comfortable. I’m a big believer in, as is anyone in their professional field whether it’s a doctor, a lawyer, whatever, you never want to be stagnant,” Kessler told reporters during Media Day. “You never want to just not be better and not try to improve. So for me, last offseason, this offseason, it was bit to try and expand my game on the offensive side. I knew coming here, obviously we have a lot of offensive threats. Not necessarily being one type of player, but being an offensive player on one side when it’s needed. Obviously we’re going to have a very good offensive team, but in those moments, take advantage of it.”

During Kessler’s two seasons in college, he took a total of 54 3-point attempts. He only shot four of those during his freshman season at UNC, with 50 of them coming as a sophomore at Auburn. He rarely shot from behind the arc during his first three seasons in the NBA with the Utah Jazz, but last year, prior to his season-ending shoulder injury, he was up at 75 percent from distance on a career-high 1.6 attempts.

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Obviously that’s an incredibly small sample size considering he was limited to only five games. But it is an interesting observation that in those five games, he made six of his eight 3-point attempts. In comparison, he hit six attempts from downtown the entirety of the 2024-25 season. He was on pace to have the best 3-point shooting season of his career thus far.

And it wasn’t just his outside shot that was noticeable on the offensive end, it was his passing as well. In 2024-25, he averaged a career-best 1.7 assists. During that five-game stretch last season, he was at a career-best 3.0 assists. Kessler is a little more versatile offensively than perhaps previously thought, aside from being a lob threat.

But Kessler will certainly get plenty of opportunities to catch lobs around the rim with Luka Doncic on the court. He recalled the first time he caught a lob from Doncic, back during the summer when the Slovenian native hosted the entire team on a bonding retreat in his home country. After catching that first lob, Kessler was giddy with excitement thinking about the upcoming season.

“It will be a very big part of the offense. It was in Slovenia when we went there. I went out there, caught the first lob, I don’t think he was even looking at me. He kind of just threw it and I was there,” Kessler said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say that about playing with him. I caught it, dunked it, ran back down, high-fived and I was like, ‘yep, I can get used to this!”