During the 2024-25 season, no NBA team was further than the Utah Jazz from the league championship series, which resumes on Wednesday night with the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder tied at one game apiece.
Utah posted the NBA’s worst record at 17-65.
“I think that you can always take two approaches to a situation,” Jazz center Walker Kessler said. “You can look at it and be like, ‘This is terrible, this sucks, whatever, whatever.’ Or you can be like, ‘Look, what an unbelievable opportunity. I’m in the NBA. I’m grateful for that. I have great people around me. I’m thankful for that.’
“And it’s definitely helped me. It’s helped me on the court, helped me off the court, and it’s definitely helped my patience as well.”
Before Kessler came to Utah, the Jazz had made the playoffs in six consecutive seasons, but without getting past the second round. A rebuilding program has seen Utah’s win total decline from 49 in its most recent playoff season to 37 to 31 to 17.
“There’s definitely frustrating times just like with anything in life,” Kessler said. “But I think that Coach (Will Hardy) and all the players and everyone around all of us have done a really good job of understanding that just because it’s frustrating or hard, whatever, doesn’t mean that there’s not a reward at the end of it. And so understanding that we’re going to have an opportunity to rebuild and make a team that’s a great team and for the future and all these young guys working together and growing together, it’s going to be huge.”
In his third season since entering the NBA as the 22nd pick in the 2022 draft, Kessler led the NBA with an average of 4.6 offensive rebounds per game, finished second with 2.4 blocked shots per game and ranked fifth with 12.2 rebounds per game.
But Kessler missed 24 games, a common problem for Utah this season. Every player missed at least 10 of the Jazz’s 82 games, and no player started more than 61.
“I think despite a lot of adversity that we went through as a team,” Kessler said, “and a lot of different things, obviously, a lot of losses and different circumstances that we weren’t expecting, and we handled it well. We learned, we grew, and I think going forward, it definitely helps us from this moment.
“I think that I’m a big believer in you really only can appreciate those moments of glory or when you do well or something when you’ve been through tough times. And so I kind of think that’s the approach we’re going to take as a team and individually. I think that I did a good job of not letting last year affect how I was going to play this year, and I was really proud of my energy on the court and how I played, so I was happy with myself.”
In the 2022-23 season, Kessler finished third in the balloting for the Wilt Chamberlain Award, which goes to the NBA Rookie of the Year, and made the All-Rookie team.
But in his second season, the former Auburn standout started only 22 games, and his averages dropped to 8.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
In his third season, Kessler added 4.7 to his rebound average and 3.0 to his scoring average while almost doubling his assist rate to 1.7 per game.
“I think I’m going to have the same summer I had last year,” Kessler said, “just because I think that that summer gave me such a good jumpstart into my, I guess, my third year. Golly, my third year, that’s crazy. And so it’ll be very similar to that just because I know that that helps me and it helps me to get that intensity and that work on my body like that, and I’m excited about it.”
Kessler said he had plenty to work on in the summer, particularly after making only 52 percent of his free throws and 17.6 percent of his 3-point shots, although he took only 34 behind the arc.
“I think that I could speak to, obviously, free throws,” Kessler said when asked about his areas for offseason emphasis. “I could speak to catch-and-shoot 3’s. I can speak to a lot of things, but more so than that, I think just improving on or continue to improve on how I play and the intensity I play with and the effort I play with and being relentless on the glass, being relentless on the defensive side, being able to cover guys in the half-court scenario, being up higher in ball screens and just fly around. So it’s just going to continue to improve my game in totality, honestly.
“And a lot of that’s maturing and a lot of that’s spending hours in the gym, in the weight room, and a lot of that’s just visual. It is just going to be continuing to learn.”
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.