{"id":847035,"date":"2026-09-29T23:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/847035\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:24:21","slug":"walker-kessler-predicts-lakers-will-be-nasty-defensive-team-on-video-ahead-of-2026-27-nba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/847035\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Kessler Predicts Lakers Will Be &#8216;Nasty Defensive Team&#8217; on Video Ahead of 2026-27 NBA Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Los Angeles Lakers center Walker Kessler believes that the team will be one of the NBA&#8217;s elite defensive units during the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">&#8220;I think we&#8217;re gonna be a nasty defensive team,&#8221; Kessler told reporters Tuesday. &#8220;I&#8217;m just being honest, seeing these guys hound the ball on the perimeter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna be really good defensively,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We have a lot of defensive tools.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Los Angeles wasn&#8217;t known for its ability to slow down opponents last year, ranking No. 20 among all teams with a 115.5 defensive rating (via <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/advanced?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RATING\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">NBA.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">While Lakers stars Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves aren&#8217;t known for their defensive acumen, Kessler was one of several offseason additions that their front office made to improve as a two-way squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Kessler is entering his first season in Los Angeles after a four-year stint with the Utah Jazz, establishing himself as one of the league&#8217;s top rim protectors. He owns a career average of 2.4 blocks per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">While Kessler was limited to just five appearances last season due to <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/utah-jazz-walker-kessler-season-ending-shoulder-surgery\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">shoulder surgery<\/a>, he suited up in 58 games during his 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">That year, opponents shot just 49.0 percent from the field against him within six feet of the basket (via <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/players\/defense-dash-lt6?CF=GP*GE*40&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=LT_06_PCT\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">NBA.com<\/a>). It ranked No. 7 among all players to appear in at least 40 contests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The Lakers will also be looking to improve their on-ball defense, attempting to do so by bringing active perimeters defenders such as Matisse Thybulle and Quentin Grimes into the mix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Los Angeles will open its 2025-26 campaign against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers center Walker Kessler believes that the team will be one of the NBA&#8217;s elite defensive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":["post-847035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-basketball","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117356911933787380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}