Walker Kessler Hype & Appreciation Thread

[Saint Cy of JFC]

And you know why every player on this list is a hall of fame player? Because they put these stats against quality NBA centers and you have to be a Hall of Famer to post such lines against the legit competition.
For example, Olajuwon did it with 27-28-8 on March 26, 1986 against Indiana and Herb Williams. Herb Williams was a productive starting center for years and his stats for the 1985-86 season were 20-9-2.4.

Mutombo on November 11, 1994 had a line of 19-26-9 when he played against the Lakers (who lost in the second rounds in the playoffs that year) and Vlade Divac.

And so on.

Kessler played against the tanking Hornets and the mighty Orlando Robinson/Colin Castleton. Comparing him with those actual Hall of Famers without the context is honestly pretty insulting to them. I can guarantee that the current Kessler in no way or shape is capable of putting these numbers against the modern equivalent of Herb Williams and Vlade Divac. He simply got incredibly lucky with the opponents on the day when he was feeling it.

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Counter: Hakeem did it in 42 minutes. Walker did it in 33.

 

[MT Steve]

He’s not wrong though. Kessler had an amazing night and is a really good player, but the context to how he got those stats it’s important too. I don’t think it’s meaningless he had that game, obviously, but it doesn’t show as much as if he did it against good competition. That’s kind of a “no duh” statement tbh.

How come nobody else in NBA history outside of a few hall-of-famers were able to have a night like that even against inferior competition?

 

[fishonjazz]

How come nobody else in NBA history outside of a few hall-of-famers were able to have a night like that even against inferior competition?

Because it's really ****ing hard to do regardless of the opposition.

 

[kcgar]

How come nobody else in NBA history outside of a few hall-of-famers were able to have a night like that even against inferior competition?

Jazznik is right. It only took about 37,000 games since the last time it was done. Will be happening very often now

 

[jazznik]

How come nobody else in NBA history outside of a few hall-of-famers were able to have a night like that even against inferior competition?

Because it requires many rare factors to come together. First, you need an absolutely junk center lineup. Not just bad, but as bad as the furiously tanking Toronto team created by essentially pulling random bodies off the street. Second, you need the team in the absolute tanking mode, otherwise their coach would quickly recognize the horrible matchup and try to remedy it by going small etc. For Toronto it was keeping getting abused at the center that gave them a chance to lose the game and the coach ran with it. Such blatant tanking was rare in the past.

Now, on the other side you need a young good center (almost all of the other records on that list came in the very first year of Shaq, Mutombo, Robinson etc. careers) who goes all in. Players like Davis or Jokic could punish horrible mismatches and ran up the score but they would ease up once the game is not in question. They are saving energy and health for long-term, for the playoffs. So, the opposing center should be on the team who is not competing for the playoffs (and is quite bad in general) but REALLY wants to prove himself in this particular game. And that is Kessler, who is in a breakout year and in a contract year, on a team that routinely keeps him out of games when healthy. He is so hungry for ANY opportunity to play and he correctly thought that he was the best player on his team, a difference maker - and he was brining to make difference.

Take it all into account and it is pretty rare. Currently, the only good young center on a bad tanking team in the NBA is only Kessler. Everybody else of note has better things to do than going ham on varsity players.

 

[jazznik]

Counter: Hakeem did it in 42 minutes. Walker did it in 33.

Yeah, and just think what numbers Kessler would put up in 25 minutes against the bigs from a high school! He would totally beat all of those silly Hall of Famers at their records!

And let not pay attention that in the game before against Jalen Duren Kessler posted 14-9-1, and in the game after against the freaking Luke Kornet (but on a good NBA team) - 11-10-2.

You guys are crazy looking and admiring absolutely meaningful results in a stupid clash of two tanking teams while ignoring an absolutely pedestrian performance by Kessler in the situations where he should be dominant. I am not talking about going head-to-head against Jokic or AD, but by god, he should be way better against durens and kornets of the NBA.

P.S. I really, really like Walter: he is one of my favorite players. And that why I have high expectations for him. If he wants to be someone in this league it is time for him to start consistently outplay average and below-average bigs. That's the only thing that matters. He will get there but it would probably take him another year.

 

[HermanG]

TU needs to step up his troll game. We have a serious contender here.