If Lakers’ Big 3 is great, they could become elite

For the Lakers to be great next season, one thing needs to happen.

The Lakers’ Big 3 needs to be dominant.

Luka Doncic needs to play MVP-level basketball. Austin Reaves needs to be a borderline All-Star. And Walker Kessler needs to transform into an All-Defensive player.

If those things happen, the Lakers could be fringe contenders.

The biggest wild card?

The 25-year-old Kessler only played five games last season after suffering a torn labrum in his left shoulder that required season-ending surgery. We don’t really know what he’s capable of yet considering he has only played three seasons for the struggling Jazz.

For the Lakers to be among the elite NBA teams, Kessler needs to be a screen-setting, rim-running big who helps get Doncic and Reaves open on offense, in addition to being a defensive beast down low.

He needs to be the type of player who Rudy Gobert is for the Timberwolves or Chet Holmgren is for the Thunder.

If he blossoms into that, the Lakers could have one of the top Big 3s in the NBA.

Kessler has already shown that he’s one of the top rebounders and rim patrollers in the league. According to NBA.com, he contested 7.5 shots per game at the rim in 2024-2025, which tied him for the fifth most in the NBA.

Now he’s more mature and motivated considering he’s playing for the 17-time championship Lakers instead of a team that hasn’t made the playoffs the last four years. And he’s playing alongside a top-four player instead of being on a roster that hasn’t had an All-Star the last three years.

Not to mention, the Lakers mortgaged their future on him (giving up two unprotected first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz), which means they don’t have a tradable first-round draft pick for the next seven years.

So, Kessler needs to be the perfect complement to Doncic and Reaves. He needs to round out the Big 3. Or this all wildly falls apart.

As for the pairing of Doncic and Reaves? There aren’t many questions there. Those two stunned at the top of last season (when LeBron James was sidelined because of sciatica), carrying the Lakers to a 15-4 record.

And then the magic happened again last March when James was sidelined for three games because of various ailments, permanently silencing any glimmers of doubt that remained about that pairing.

Over that period, the Lakers sailed past the Pacers, Knicks and Timberwolves, prompting questions over whether the Lakers were better without James, who’s one of the greatest players of all time.

After seeing the fluidity and ease in which Doncic and Reaves ran the offense together, James returned to the Lakers as the team’s third offensive option, a role he hadn’t played previously in his 23-season career.

As for Doncic, he’s now the head of the snake after James left for the 76ers in free agency this offseason.

Doncic chose Reaves and Kessler to be his running mates. That means something. Reaves and Kessler know it.

Reaves penned the richest contract for a player who went undrafted this summer (four years, $180 million). And Kessler is well aware that the Lakers laid their cards on the table for him with cash (four years, $130 million) and assets, prompting him to say he’d run through a wall for them.

The Lakers’ competition is going to be steep this season.

The Western Conference alone is filled with great Big 3s, including the Thunder (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Holmgren), Spurs (Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle) and Nuggets (Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon).

Not to mention, those guys all have experience playing together.

The Thunder won the championship in 2025. The Spurs reached the Finals last season. And the Nuggets’ core won a title in 2023.

The Lakers still have to figure things out.

Kessler needs to prove himself. The three of them need to develop chemistry.

But if those things happen, the Lakers could knock on the championship door soon.