Jazz's Walker Kessler Given Interesting Goal From Will Hardy

The Utah Jazz head coach has an intriguing approach to his big man's development.

Mar 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler (24) backs towards the basket as Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) plays defense in the first half at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The Utah Jazz have dealt an eye-catching assignment to their young big man during the final stretch of the season.

Walker Kessler, the Jazz's young, budding defensive anchor in the middle, has been urged in the final weeks of the 2024-25 NBA season to pull the trigger on his looks from three-point range. Despite being far from a threat on the outside since entering the league, Utah's staff has begun to give their big man the green light to confidently pull from distance.

Over Utah's past two showings against the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves, Kessler has shot 11 three-pointers, ultimately seeing one hit the bottom of the net. Those 11 shots from Kessler are more three-point attempts than he's posted throughout his previous 50 games on the year.

It's a bit surprising on paper, to say the least. Yet, in the mind of head coach Will Hardy, it's all according to plan.

Hardy spoke before the Jazz's latest performance against the Chicago Bulls, presenting his logic surrounding Kessler's increased rate of three-pointers, as well as what he expects to see from him for the rest of the season.

"Right now, if Walker gets six threes off, I consider it a win," Hardy said. "The technical details of all that are not going to be ignored, but I also don't want to overcomplicate it for him right now. It's like the golfer who has 50 swing thoughts when they're standing over the ball. It's not going to help you. Right now, it's about shooting threes that make sense, shooting them with confidence... but the actual technical part of his footwork and those types of things, we'll deal with in the offseason."

At this point in the season, the Jazz have since been eliminated from playoff contention, and continue to dive head-first into the tank to fulfill their needs for a top pick in this year's draft. It allows Hardy to open up his bag of tricks in the final stretch of the year, which includes seeing what Kessler can do shooting as many good looks from three as possible on any given night.

Doing so at this point in the season allows a perfect runway to see what Kessler has from an offensive perspective in a low-stakes, freeing environment, even giving him the chance to put more work on film to help further develop him this offseason. That's another factor for Hardy's decision to open up Kessler in the offensive game plan.

"We'll have a gook chunk, hopefully, of seeing some threes over these next 14 games, and it'll reveal to us what to actually work on," Hardy continued. "If we get too bogged down on the details on a really small sample size, we could end up over-coaching something that's not an issue."

Over the course of this season, Kessler has made significant steps forward in his progression around the board as a defender, rebounder, and has since cemented himself as a vital component in the Jazz's future. The next step now becomes filling out his arsenal offensively, starting first with building confidence in his shot from range.

If the Jazz center can become a consistent threat as a floor spacer and pick-and-pop threat, it could mean big things for the future of this offense. However, getting that aspect to truly develop may take some time.

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