Jazz’s opening night performance and a step in the right direction

Most basketball players love getting into the gym and working on their game. Even in the offseason, they enjoy the routine and repetition of being on a court and going through drills and getting up hundreds of shots. But Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy knew that the directive he gave Walker Kessler and Taylor Hendricks for the summer was not going to be the most exciting thing in the world.
Sure, they were also going to work on their skills, but the top priority was clear — hit the weights and get stronger. Period.
“The work that he did this summer is not fun,” Hardy said. “All the young players working on their body, that’s not fun, and it takes a lot of dedication and effort and sacrifice. And Walker did those things.”
The third-year center said he finished the 2023-24 season weighing roughly 253 pounds and that he’s coming into the 2024-25 season weighing 272, which is a significant difference. But the weight room is not the only place that Kessler did a lot of work.
Kessler said that he’s also working with a mental strength coach and that he’s pushing himself to focus on gratitude and positive thoughts rather than zeroing in on negative thoughts and trying to be a perfectionist.
“It’s been helping a lot,” Kessler said. “Just taking a step back and realizing that you’re in an unbelievable opportunity. Looking at your 11-year-old self and saying, ‘Hey, you’re gonna play in the NBA one day.’ So an attitude of gratitude and just being thankful for it.”
The result of all the work is that Kessler comes into his third season feeling like he’s allowed himself to fall back in love with basketball, that he’s found joy in transforming his body and that he wants to play free and hard and find more areas to improve.
Of course, all of the feelings and muscle gain are a good start, but seeing it all pay off is in an actual NBA game is something completely different. Well, how’s 16 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks, one steal and one assist? That was Kessler’s statline from the Jazz’s opening night 126-124 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
But even more important, Kessler was playing with a toughness and physicality that he was not playing with last season. He was rebounding and fighting for position in a way that we haven’t seen from him and displaying a strength with the ball in his hands that is completely new.
“It’s great for him to have this game on opening night, because it shows him that the work is paying off,” Hardy said. “Now the work has to continue. But he’s found, or re-found, some of that childish joy that we saw from Walker very early in his time here.”
Kessler’s success as a rookie and the struggles he had during his second season have been well documented and analyzed widely, and for good reason. This season is going to be hugely important for Kessler and it could very well defining for how the rest of his career plays out. He has to be able to prove that he can play with the skill and freedom that was on display during his rookie campaign, but with the strength, toughness and confidence that he was very clearly lacking last year.
And, in the Jazz’s opening game of the 2024-25 season, despite the final score, Kessler proved that he has taken a step in the right direction.