{"id":857000,"date":"2026-08-16T06:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857000\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T06:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:22:11","slug":"nba-expert-defends-lakers-risky-top-offseason-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/857000\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA expert defends Lakers’ risky top offseason acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the negativity surrounding what the Lakers had to surrender and the big man’s injury history, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst is convinced that Walker Kessler is still a great fit alongside Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers made several significant changes this offseason, with the acquisition of Walker Kessler standing out as their biggest move.<\/p>\n

While many remain skeptical of Kessler due to his injury history and what the Lakers gave up to acquire him, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst believes the big man remains a perfect fit as the interior anchor for Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n

“[Austin] Reaves and Luka [Doncic] are so good, and there is a reasonable sample size that shows that those guys playing together are going to generate a fair amount of wins even if you have deficiencies elsewhere,” the NBA expert said on his The Hoop Collective Podcast. “When you look at [Walker] Kessler, so many people are going to focus on the cost, on the trade cost. And I do think that we could get into a situation in the next, you know, 6 to 12 months where we say, ‘Boy, if the Lakers had just handled that a little differently, they would be able to do whatever that as part of the opportunity cost.’<\/p>\n

“But if you look at the actual fit, it’s a great fit.”<\/p>\n

Will Lakers regret signing Walker Kessler? <\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz for an unprotected 2031 first-round pick, an unprotected 2033 first-round pick, a 2028 first-round pick swap, and a 2030 first-round pick swap.<\/p>\n

The deal is a sign-and-trade, in which Kessler inked a four-year, $130 million contract to join LA as a restricted free agent.<\/p>\n

Luka Doncic primarily backed the Lakers’ pursuit of Kessler<\/a> amid his demands of an “A-list” center this offseason. However, the concern is there with regards to the price that LA had to pay and the big man’s recent injury issues<\/p>\n

Kessler averaged 14.4 points in over 70 percent shooting with 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.8 blocks, and 1.4 steals in the 2025-26 season. Unfortunately, his run was short-lived after playing just five games amid a season-ending shoulder injury in November.<\/p>\n

NBA expert Zach Lowe also warned the Lakers that Kessler’s pricey landing could hurt them in the long run<\/a> and might force them to part ways with Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n

Still, despite the negativity surrounding the signing, the Lakers appear confident of having Kessler as their newest franchise center to kickstart the official Doncic era next season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Support BasketNews so we could make even better content.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If you like our content, please click here<\/a> and add us as your preferred source. It helps us a lot, and we are committed to delivering you the very latest basketball news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wake of the negativity surrounding what the Lakers had to surrender and the big man’s injury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-857000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}