Jazz Center Walker Kessler Falls Short of Rookie of the Year Award

Kessler's Rookie of the Year campaign fell a bit short on Tuesday night to the number one overall pick.

Despite the Utah Jazz center being named a finalist for the award, it wasn't enough in the end. Orlando Magic F Paolo Banchero was officially named the winner of the 2022-23 Rookie of the Year award on Tuesday. Kessler placed third place in the voting for the award, netting two first place votes among the pool.

While unable to get Rookie of the Year honors, Kessler still had nothing short of a stellar first season. Kessler played 74 games averaging 9.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, and an incredible 2.3 blocks for Utah. The rookie was a fantastic replacement on the defensive end for previous Jazz center, Rudy Gobert, after being dealt last offseason. 

While it was definitely a season of overachieving some initial projections for Kessler, it wasn't enough to take down the first pick in terms of Rookie of the Year. Banchero was able to meet some hefty rookie expectations by averaging 20 points, and close to 7 rebounds and 4 assists per game.

We already did have a sense before the award was even announced of what the result would be, as it's pretty difficult to make a serious case to put Kessler over Banchero. However, we did actually see one of the voters try to make a case for him earlier this month. Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune decided to place his ROTY vote for Kessler, and it definitely resulted in some heavy Twitter criticism.

Walker Kessler has legit potential but voting him as ROY over Paolo Banchero probably won't get you another ballot next season pic.twitter.com/dx6s12W28o

— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) April 14, 2023

The last time a Jazz rookie ended as a finalist for Rookie of the Year was none other than Donovan Mitchell in his infamous 2017 award race between him and Ben Simmons. Despite Mitchell's incredible rookie season for the Jazz, he was marginally overshadowed by Simmons who was drafted a year prior, but sat out due to injury, leading fans to question his true "rookie" status.

This year however, there was a little less controversy surrounding the award. Considering there was only one rookie to average above 15 points per game this season, the decision was pretty clear for (most) voters.

The Jazz will have another opportunity to secure a Rookie of the Year winner next season as they enter this offseason with three first-round picks. Another potential winner of the award would make them the second player in Jazz history to receive those honors, the only other being Darrell Griffith in 1981.

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