LOS ANGELES — Walker Kessler’s welcome to the Lakers was at the heart of an offseason of change.
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That’s the power of being their new franchise center, who in his first interview as a member of the Lakers, told reporters in Las Vegas that he was ready to run through a brick wall for his new team after being acquired in a sign-and-trade deal with the Utah Jazz.
Kessler, one of nine new faces joining the team amid another ownership transition with Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner’s pending purchase of the franchise at a $12.5 billion valuation still awaiting approval from the NBA Board of Governors, is the center that Luka Doncic had been waiting for ahead of his second full season with the Lakers.
Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, along with head coach JJ Redick, made their intentions clear during their annual preseason press conference: the 2026-27 team is built around its Slovenian star – and with his input as well.
“There was a lot of communication with Rob and JJ about him,” Doncic, who led the NBA in scoring last season, said of Kessler this month, “so I’m very excited to just share the floor with him.”
From Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol and most recently, Anthony Davis, there has been plenty of star power at center in Lakers history. At 25 and still in the early stages of his professional career, Kessler has a long way to go to reach the levels of Lakers big men who have come before him.
But Kessler, who signed a four-year, $130 million contract to remain with the Lakers as a part of the offseason trade that brought him here from Utah, is ready for the challenge.
The 7-foot-2 backbone of the Lakers’ defense has said it several times during the preseason: he recognizes the belief the front office has shown in his abilities by sending two first-round draft picks and two first-round pick swaps to the Jazz in return for his expected double-double production.
“The Lakers organization is obviously a historic organization, and there’s maybe added pressure to that,” said Kessler, who will form a Big 3 alongside Doncic and guard Austin Reaves. “But I think for me, with that pressure comes a lot of opportunity to play on a stage like this and to compete for a championship.”
Kessler is just one of many fresh faces.
Gone are forward Rui Hachimura, center Deandre Ayton, guard Marcus Smart and yes, NBA icon LeBron James, putting a cap on an eight-season era that brought the Lakers the 2020 NBA championship in the COVID-19 bubble in Florida.
The Lakers welcomed Kessler and brought in guard Quentin Grimes, forward/center Sandro Mamukelashvili and guard Collin Sexton on multi-year contracts in free agency. Pelinka brought in low-risk wings in Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle on veteran’s minimum deals, both of whom are fighting for the final two spots in the starting lineup, and if they remain healthy, they look like smart additions to any NBA roster.
“I like everybody that we signed,” Doncic said at the team’s preseason media day last month. “I think there’s a lot of underrated guys, a lot of new guys that are underrated.”
Joining the Lakers, however, brings added attention that doesn’t come with most other teams.
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“All these guys that haven’t gone through it, there’s nothing like it,” Redick said Friday. “And I think they all want to embrace it. They all have a chip on their shoulder about it. They want to make Lakers fans proud, and I know they will.”
Redick said in September that this was his first year as head coach where he feels as if the pieces “fit together” and that roles have more potential to crystalize – a strong statement from a coach who has won at least 50 regular-season games in each of his first two seasons on the job.
Intentionality, how the roster was assembled, has not gone unnoticed with the players.
“Everybody came in ego-less,” Grimes told the Southern California News Group. “And I feel like everybody really bought into the role of what they need to do on this team. When you have ego-less basketball, it kind of makes it easier to go out there and play for the name on the front.”
Every Lakers player outside of rookie Cameron Carr, who had NBA rookie orientation duties to attend to, went to Ljubljana, Slovenia on Doncic’s dime for an offseason camp to get to know his new teammates.
Coaches and players alike have glowed about the generosity of the star guard, trying to accelerate the get-to-know-you process with his new roster ahead of the regular season, which tips off on Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena.
“I feel like that really sped us up a lot,” Grimes said, “and I feel like it’ll show, definitely in the season.”
The expectations for the Lakers are clear. Redick said he’s confident this group is going to develop into a “championship-level” team during the season. Doncic said he’s believed since the first day in Slovenia that this team can win the title, which would be his first NBA championship.
Overcoming the Western Conference’s best – the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs – looks like a lofty task.
But with a new identity – one that no longer includes James – the Lakers are giving title hopes their best shot.
“We’re a brand new team to one another and there’s going to be some growing periods where things aren’t going the way that we want them to go,” Reaves said last month. “But that doesn’t change the goal at the end of the day. And that’s to be as competitive as we can every single night. …”
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“This team is going to be resilient.”