When the Los Angeles Lakers gave up two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps in a sign-and-trade for Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler and then handed him a four-year, $129.5 million contract, they were met with almost universal derision.

They gave up how much? For whom?? And they gave him what?!

CBS Sports' Sam Quinn and Robby Kalland gave the Lakers a C+ for the move. ESPN's Zach Kram handed them a C-. SB Nation's Ricky O'Donnell issued them a D. All of them cited concerns about the volume of draft capital that the Lakers gave up and how it would limit their ability to improve the roster around Luka Dončić moving forward.

In the Lakers' first game of the 2026-27 season, Kessler showed exactly why the Lakers felt comfortable splurging on him to that extent.

Enter 'Milk Chamberlain'

On Wednesday, the LeBron James-less Lakers got to face the depleted Golden State Warriors. Sure, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are still there, but Jimmy Butler (ACL), Moses Moody (patellar tendon), Kristaps Porziņģis (POTS) and Brandin Podziemski (back soreness) were all sidelined. The Warriors started De'Anthony Melton, Gui Santos and rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg alongside Curry and Green, which left them without anyone above 6-foot-9 in their starting lineup.

Kessler made that readily apparent from the jump.

On the Lakers' first possession, Dončić drew two defenders as he drove into the paint, which freed up Kessler for an alley-oop. Two minutes later, he slammed home another one. He wound up finishing the game with 26 points on a perfect 12-of-12 shooting along with nine rebounds, two blocks and an assist in only 30 minutes.

In doing so, he made a bit of NBA history.

Walker Kessler went 12-for-12 from the field in his @Lakers debut.

That's the most field goals without a miss by any player in his debut with a team in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/iWhffeIvDS

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) October 22, 2026

Kessler also had the second-best shooting game in Lakers history, trailing only a 14-of-14 night from Wilt Chamberlain, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic. His 10 dunks on the night were the most by a Laker since Shaquille O'Neal in 2003, per the NBA.

Thankfully, Inside the NBA was on Wednesday night, so the Big Aristotle himself got to weigh in on Kessler's history-making performance. He even came up with a new nickname for Kessler.

Kessler told the Inside crew that "it was pretty easy playing with" Dončić and Austin Reaves because he "just ran the floor and they found me."

"I think Luka, the way he plays, man, he just picks up stuff so fast," Kessler added. "I think he already knew I run the floor. You know, that's one of my strengths. I would just say 'Luka,' and, you know, he'd just drop it off. I just grab it and dunk it. His court vision is insane. I mean, it's like he's got a third eye or something."

Kessler isn't going to keep shooting 100% from the floor all season, particularly once he's matched up against bigs who are closer to his size. But the dunkathon he put on display against the Warriors on Wednesday was the Lakers' vision coming to life.

At 7-foot-2, Kessler is an easy lob target for Dončić and Reaves. It's almost unfair to pair someone that size with a preternatural passer like Dončić, who draws extra defensive attention once he starts driving to the basket. Opposing bigs can't leave Kessler's side unless they want to end up on the wrong end of an alley-oop, which puts defenses in a difficult bind when they guard Luka-Kessler pick-and-rolls.

Kessler's size also helps him dominate on the glass. He led the league with 4.6 offensive rebounds per game during his third season—and averaged 12.2 boards per game in total that year—and he averaged a double-double last year as well, albeit over only the five games before he suffered a season-ending labrum tear.

Kessler has averaged roughly two blocks per game in each of his NBA seasons to date, which makes him a clear upgrade over Deandre Ayton from a rim-protection standpoint. His size should also allow him to set screens to help Dončić, Reaves and the rest of the Lakers guards wriggle free from defenders on the perimeter.

Kessler's historic debut didn't entirely erase the long-term concerns about the sign-and-trade for him. The Lakers have already traded away four of their next seven first-round picks, and they owe swaps to Utah in 2028 and 2030 as well. The lone first-rounder that they have full control over in that span is in 2032, and they can only trade a swap that year unless they acquire a first-round pick in 2031 or 2033. They're down to three second-round picks across the next seven years as well, two of which are coming from the Washington Wizards.

Kessler played 74 games as a rookie, but he missed 18 games in his second season, 24 games in his third season and all but five games last year. The Jazz's increasingly shameless tanking contributed to some of those absences, but not all of them. The Lakers do have Sandro Mamukelashvili and Kevon Looney behind Kessler, but neither of them provide the same type of presence on either end of the floor.

With that said, there's been a clear formula since Luka's Dallas days about which types of players work well alongside him. He made Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II look like world-beaters at times, and Kessler has a far higher ceiling than either of them due to his size and shooting range.

Yes, the Lakers might have overpaid for Kessler when it comes to draft capital. (Granted, it's easier to do so when they only had to give up one first-round pick to acquire Luka in the first place.) But if his production against the Warriors on Wednesday is any indication, his fit alongside Dončić might wind up justifying that hefty price tag after all.