Walker Kessler Wants To Improve As Decision-Maker

When Walker Kessler was acquired by the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason, the belief was that his offensive role would be strictly as a finisher at the rim off the looks created by Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. And while that has been the case, recently Kessler has shown off some passing skills with at least three assists in each of the last three games.

This is not a skill that many expected to see from Kessler, but it certainly helps to open things up for the Lakers’ offense as a whole. But Kessler sees that as an area he can get better at and wants to be a better decision-maker with the ball overall.

“I gotta do a lot better job I can tell you that,” Kessler said on Spectrum SportsNet after the Lakers’ victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. “I’m getting the ball stripped from me too much when I hold the ball low. There’s a lot of factors, but yea I gotta do a better job of that. But yea it’s kind of a game feel. If you feel like you can go up with it depending on who’s around you, if you pass it out. It just kinda depends.”

Kessler being able to receive the pass out of the pick-and-roll at the free throw line and be able to quickly make the decision on whether to attack the rim or make the right pass to a teammate is that next step in his development. Against the Bucks, he was able to find Ziaire Williams for an easy lob on back-to-back possessions and being able to do that consistently will help take the Lakers to another level.

The Lakers are very trusting of someone like Sandro Mamukelashvili in that position as he is a more natural creator. But Kessler becoming more comfortable in that area only makes things easier for the rest of the Lakers and gives this offense another way in which they can get easy baskets.

Obviously Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are gonna continue getting blitzed a lot, and Kessler’s playmaking becomes crucial when that happens.

Luka Doncic believes undefeated road trip can help Lakers build confidence

The Lakers went 3-0 on their East Coast road trip which sent a message to the rest of the league about how good this team is as they now stand at 11-2. Doncic believes their success on this trip can help build this team’s confidence, though he also made sure to note that the Lakers have always believed in each other since before training camp.