{"id":882738,"date":"2026-09-07T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882738\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T01:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T01:52:10","slug":"robert-horry-calls-walker-kessler-difference-maker-for-lakers-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882738\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Horry calls Walker Kessler ‘difference-maker’ for Lakers 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Los Angeles Lakers will be a new era for the team, as they will look vastly different after a busy offseason<\/a> that has been built around Luka Don\u010di\u0107, with hopes of winning an NBA title for the 18th time in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Robert Horry, who helped win three of the Lakers\u2019 five titles in the 2000\u2019s said he believes top free-agent acquisition Walker Kessler will be the difference-maker this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you watch what Walker Kessler brings to the game, he\u2019s so incredibly skilled and we haven\u2019t had a big since AD that can block shots like that, pop out for threes,\u201d Horry said. \u201cSo I just hope he stays healthy \u2014 Him missing damn near all season, how much rust has he developed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Walker Kessler throwing out the first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

During his first three seasons in the league, Kessler was emerging as one of the best big men in basketball as he was coming off a 2024-2025 season where he averaged a career-high 12.2 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, 1.7 assists, and 11.1 points per game.<\/p>\n

Last year, Kessler was already putting up similar production, but his season would quickly come to an end after suffering a torn labrum injury.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Walker Kessler attempting to block Karl-Anthony Towns during an NBA game as a member of the Utah Jazz. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s going to be really interesting to see what he can do because he is the key. Not Luka, not AR, he is,\u201d Horry said.<\/p>\n

When the offseason began, Don\u010di\u0107 had one request to the Lakers front office<\/a>, and that was finding him a big man.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Austin Reaves and Luka Don\u010di\u0107 greeting eachother during an NBA game. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Lakers granted his wish when they acquired Kessler from the Utah Jazz in a sign-and-trade deal<\/a> that featured them trading away two unprotected future first-round draft picks and two first-round pick swaps, including a four-year, $130 million contract extension that will pay him $30.1 million next season.<\/p>\n

With a potentially healthy Kessler on the Lakers roster this year, it will be a new Lakers trio that will feature him, Don\u010di\u0107, and Austin Reaves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Los Angeles Lakers will be a new era for the team, as they will look vastly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,485,481,7232,590,85,112058],"class_list":["post-882738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-california","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-walker-kessler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882738","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=882738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}