Watch: Perkins sets the bar for Walker Kessler, Ja Morant off Portland’s bench and Peter Schrager’s five League Pass favorites

Two full segments worth your time from Wednesday: the NBA Today crew breaking down Walker Kessler’s first Lakers game and Ja Morant’s new bench role in Portland, then Peter Schrager running through the five players he loves watching on League Pass.

NBA Today: the bar Perkins set for Walker Kessler

Kessler missed the Lakers’ first three preseason games after hitting his finger on the backboard, so the game against Golden State in Las Vegas was the panel’s first real look at him. He threw one down over Yaxel Lendeborg and finished a cut off an Austin Reaves feed, while Reaves led everyone with 28 points and seven assists. Luka Doncic sat this one out, so the Doncic-Kessler pairing still has to wait for Friday’s preseason finale.

Kendrick Perkins said Kessler’s biggest impact has to come on defense, to the point that JJ Redick should be pushing him toward Defensive Player of the Year: rim protection, rebounding and handling the pick-and-roll for a roster short on perimeter defenders. The counterpoint at the desk was that one big man can’t fix it alone: the Lakers ranked last in defense last season, so it has to be a full five-man effort. Perkins closed with a reminder that the champion Knicks won with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns raising their defensive level, and said Doncic and Reaves have to do the same.

Ja Morant comes off the bench in Portland

The same show looked at the Blazers’ new starting group with Damian Lillard back hitting deep threes and Deni Avdija scoring 26. Morant came off the bench and still scored 14, including a left-handed floater in the third quarter. The panel noted he has come off the bench only twice in his regular-season career.

Perkins said Morant has to earn his way again on a team that made the playoffs. The panel also made the case that Jrue Holiday next to Lillard is probably the better defensive fit, that who closes games matters more than who starts, and that Portland will use plenty of small lineups with Scoot Henderson, Lillard, Morant and Avdija on the floor together. Starting on the bench was framed as a reasonable place for Morant to begin, with a comparison to the impact Dylan Harper had off San Antonio’s bench in the Finals and a chance to ease into a new system after his health issues in Memphis.

The segment ends with a on Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg after the Mavericks’ trip to Macau, saying Kyrie looked like an eight-time All-Star and that Flagg will have the ball in better spots, not less often. Michael C. Wright adds that the Spurs are committed to starting De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle together once Fox, held out so far with soreness, is ready.

Peter Schrager’s five League Pass favorites

On Big Day, Schrager called himself a League Pass junkie and gave his list of the five players he most loves watching:

• 5. Davion Mitchell: picked for his perimeter defense, the offensive fouls he draws and his ball security; Schrager said he was third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio last season.
• 4. Egor Demin: the 6-foot-8 Nets guard who hit seven threes against the Warriors before a foot injury ended his season. Schrager thinks Brooklyn could be sneaky good.
• 3. Coby White: Schrager called this a breakout season, with LaMelo Ball gone from Charlotte and White coming off his overtime shot in the Play-In win over Miami.
• 2. Nickeil Alexander-Walker: the 2025-26 Most Improved Player, the first Canadian to win it, and another perimeter defender Schrager loves watching.
• 1. Mikal Bridges: the Knicks’ iron man, with 638 straight games played, the eighth-longest streak in NBA history, after a title run that answered every question about the picks New York gave up for him.

His co-hosts pushed back on it. One added Dylan Harper as the next young star, and the other joked that the real list was just Knicks players.