The Triple Team: Walker Kessler stood out in Jazz’s first game. What did he change this summer?

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 126-124 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Walker Kessler was absolutely terrific

Yes, the Jazz lost the game. But I agree with head coach Will Hardy: “Overall, there was more good than bad in this game.”

Number one on that list was the incredibly effective game of Walker Kessler. Let’s be honest: Kessler had a pretty poor sophomore year. In particular, his hands were prone to dropping the ball.

To wit, the NBA’s tracking system measures how many defensive rebound chances any given player has during a game and then counts how many they actually end up with. He finished gathering just 57.5% of his defensive rebounding chances last year, one of the worst rates among centers in the NBA.

In this game, though? He was exceptional. Kessler finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, adding five blocks. He boxed out Memphis center/giant Zach Edey with aplomb, then added six offensive rebounds to pump his total. There’s honestly just no way Kessler does some of the things he did Wednesday — grabbing a big rebound, keeping the ball high among the trees, and then finishing the play — last year.

So what’s different about Kessler this year? A ton:

• First, he didn’t play with Team USA this summer, giving him the full summer to practice and work out. “Consistently hitting it five days a week for the whole summer, especially on my body ... it helped unbelievably, that kind of consistency,” he said.

• He’s using a couple of new tools. First, he’s wearing a Whoop fitness sensor, kind of an advanced Fitbit that Kessler finds more data-driven and comfortable to wear while working out. He’s also working with a heavy basketball on glass work in practice, making the rebounds in-game easier.

• As a result, his body is physically different. Kessler said he weighed 252 pounds at the end of the season in 2023-24. Now he weighs 272 — “OK, maybe 271″ — he says. That helps him physically win those matchups down low; he still looked spry enough to get five blocks, though.

• He says he’s working with what he called a “mental strength coach,” and that it’s helped him a lot. In particular, it’s helped him become less of a perfectionist, so he feels confident in attacking the next play with 100% effort when he does make a mistake.

• He’s more confident in his free-throw stroke, he said; he made 4-5 Wednesday. That confidence makes it easier for him to play through contact.

• Quicker decisions have also been part of his success. If he’s able to tap in the offensive rebound, great. If he’s able to finish on a pick-and-roll play, great. If not, he’s quickly finding a teammate on the perimeter to get into the next play — frequently a handoff and roll play that might find Kessler again.

I couldn’t have been more impressed, honestly. It’s just one game, and Kessler wasn’t quite this good in preseason, so there might be questions about how it continues through 82 games. But if it does, then he’s a real building block for the next good Jazz team.

2. Keyonte George’s shot selection

While it wasn’t the only reason, the biggest reason the Jazz ended up losing was Keyonte George’s struggles. To be honest, it couldn’t have been much worse: he shot 3-18 from the field, 5-9 from the line. The bright spot, which Hardy referenced in his post-game interview, was that George dished seven assists next to only one turnover.

But when you miss 15 shots, it doesn’t matter much. Here’s the shot chart:

You can see the problem already: there’s too much midrange stuff. Here’s the link of the shots he took if you want to view the decision-making here.

Midrange shots are inefficient almost by definition in today’s NBA, but they’re especially so in the way George can get them, as wild layups, floaters, and pull-ups on the move over defenders. One way you can tell they’re a bad idea: just how eager the Memphis defense is to give those looks to him. They’re largely covering in deep drop, giving those shots to a player struggling with his shot. He also, ironically, passed up some open threes to get those on-the-move looks, which isn’t a win.

A few of those shots were because George was trying to draw fouls, trying to take advantage of a point of emphasis the NBA has added this year. Essentially, on drives, the NBA wants refs to see if a player driving has established a line to the basket — and if the defender interrupts that line, it’s considered a foul. Talking to reporters after the game, George clearly thought he should have been sent to the line more often. I don’t really agree, with probably one exception.

He’s just got to clean the shot selection up in order to be a quality NBA player. He did so many good things last year, but was still considered at or below replacement level because of these missed shots and turnovers. Rookies and second-year guys on bad teams get the leeway to improve, and George will too, but it can’t last forever.

3. Taylor Hendricks’ improvement

The role they have Taylor Hendricks playing is clear: he’s going to start so he can guard the opponent’s best player, pretty much no matter what (with the rare exception of bulking centers, I suspect, so only Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.) On offense, he’s going to be trusted to make knockdown threes and occasionally move around in order to create them.

It’s a very limited version of the 3-and-D role; you’d see, oh, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Jaden McDaniels do much more. But it is one where Hendricks can succeed right now, because he is really crazily long, and he has a pretty uncanny knack for knocking down threes. (As a side note, Hendricks is a better game shooter than his practice shots would indicate.)

The in-game IQ stuff is still improving. Multiple times this game, he had to be told to stand in a different place on offense, and he does get lost on defense when he’s guarding off the ball.

But this version we saw in the opener was the groundwork for Hendricks being a legitimately useful player. He had an impressive moment against Ja Morant; he had another steal late in the game as well that helped the Jazz come back.

He also avoided some rookie mistakes he would have made last year, and after a 3-foul first half, avoided fouling in the second half.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good developmental situation for Hendricks. He’s shown a lot of progress already, and will need more to become worthy of the Jazz’s lottery selection used to draft him.

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