Mar 17, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Tre Jones (30) gets past Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler (24) and to the basket during the second half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images

Utah Jazz's Walker Kessler Lands Absurd Spot on NBA Centers List

Originally posted on Utah Jazz on SI | By Jared Koch | Last updated Aug 20, 2025 5:31 PM ET

Heading into the 2025-26 NBA campaign, Utah Jazz big man Walker Kessler will already be entering year four of his young career, finding his place as one of the young better defensive bigs in the game, albeit while on one of the worst teams on that end of the floor across the two years.

Yet, despite Kessler's efforts through a three-year sample size, it seems he's still not quite getting the due credit he deserves across the league–– and he's especially not re ceiving it in the latest NBA big man rankings from The Athletic.

The Athletic's Zach Harper recently broke down a comprehensive top 40 big men list in the NBA leading into next season, and when it came to Kessler, he sank to a wild placement of 35th, and saw a bundle of head-turning candidates to rank ahead of him.

In the same tier as Kessler but still ranking ahead of him were names like Brook Lopez, Al Horford, Mark Williams, and even Andre Drummond... in the year of 2025. Furthermore, those to rank ahead of Kessler in a totally separate tier were names like Onyeka Okongwu, Goga Bitadze, and even Yang Hansen, who's yet to even appear in a regular season NBA game.

ESPN not ranking Lauri Markkanen a mong the top 10 EuroBasket players in this summer's tournament is one level of disrespect towards the Jazz. To put year-four Walker Kessler in the same tier as 32-year-old Andre Drummond is malpractice.

Sure, the Jazz have their pitfalls on the defensive end, as they were the worst-rated defensive team in the NBA, but it's hard to put all of that responsibility on Kessler's shoulders. Kessler still maintained his status as one of the best shot blockers in the NBA, and remained a positive contributor on the defensive end, with teams having fewer points per possession (-0.9) and a lower effective field goal percentage (-1.2%) while he was on the floor.

Combine that with career-high averages in points and rebounds the last time he had last season, and it's hard to discount the type of impact Kessler has in this Jazz frontcourt and his standing amongst the better big men in the league. However, in the eyes of some, he still finds himself on the outside looking in to that top 30 bubble.

Maybe with some progression of this Jazz defensive unit as a whole next season, along with even another step forward for Kessler in year four, he can find a way to jump up a few spots come this time next year. As for now, though, he'll have some doubters to prove wrong.