Has Orlando found their defensive anchor for years to come?
When it comes to the prestigious CSL Defensive Player of The Year award, aka the Okoro White award, there are always interesting debates among voters and GMs around the league. Some people believe in raw numbers such as steals/blocks, while others believe in more advanced metrics driven factors such as drive stop rate, points allowed per shot, etc... It is always fascinating to see which school of thoughts prevails when it comes to DPOY voting. I do believe that advanced stats has slowly gaining more traction as a criteria when it comes to DPOY voting.
In this current generation of defensive studs, there are usually a few usual suspects that emerge to the top of the DPOY voting ballots. From the likes of DeAndre Ayton, Bruno Fernando, Rui Hachimura, Kaiser Gates, Daniel Gafford, Troy Brown, Davion Mitchell to a newer generation of defenders such as James Wiseman, Bol Bol, Jalen Suggs, Jaxon Hayes, Kofi Cockburn, etc... There seems to be an abundance of defensive talent in this current CSL landscape, which always makes the DPOY race a fun one to discuss.
However, there is one young 23 years old big man that is putting up some historic numbers this season despite playing for a lottery bound team. While it's unlikely that he will win the DPOY award due to poor team performance, but his historic season definitely deserves to be recognized. This big man's name is Walker Kessler of the Orlando Magic. Kessler was selected 10th overall by the Magic in the 2030 CSL draft. For the first two seasons of Kessler's young career, he was mostly playing off the bench as a backup center in limited minutes as the Magic had some talented big men such as Mark Williams playing ahead of him. Despite limited minutes, Kessler was already showing flashes of being a fantastic rim protector.
This season Kessler has been rewarded with more minutes this season, and his play has forced the Magic hand to give him a starting center spot as season progresses. Kessler finished the season with an absurd 3.9 blocks per game in only 28 minutes per game. The next closest contestant is Bruno Fernando of the Memphis Grizzlies, who is a well known defensive powerhouse at 3.1 blocks per game. Not only has Kessler posted an insane blocks total season, his advanced metrics were also very impressive. He has only allowed a ridiculous 0.76 PA/SF ratio while facing close to 12 shots per game. In comparison to all eligible starting big men this season, not a single big man as posted a PA/SF ratio below 0.80. Kessler is the only big man that has reached below that threshold, which means he wasn't just stat padding with block shots, but rather he was making impactful plays, and has become a true anchor inside the paint. This combination of shot blocking and advanced defensive metrics is almost unheard of in the CSL.
One has to wonder if the Magic should give this young defensive stud more minutes, as he was literally carrying that defense the whole season. Hopefully after a historic performance such as this one that Kessler will get more recognition around the league. Perhaps one day he will become a DPOY winner if he continues this stellar level of defensive gameplay. The future is bright for this young big man, and I hope the Magic organization will give the full rein to this stud rim protector for years to come.
