INDIANAPOLIS — The best part about playing for Tom Izzo and his staff at Michigan State — Jaxon Kohler said — was the way they managed to push him past what he thought were his physical boundaries.
The Spartans big man — who participated in the Pacers draft prospects workout on Friday — envisioned himself as a stretch power forward when he arrived on campus. However, he only attempted five 3-pointers in his first two seasons as he worked on playing more center and getting used to life in the paint. This season, Kohler finally showed off all parts of his game, averaging 12.5 points and 8.9 rebounds and hitting 58 3-pointers at a 38.9% clip for a Michigan State team that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“When I first got there, a big thing was athleticism, body,” Kohler said. “I had the skill, but could it translate to bigger guys in the Big Ten? As a player, you think you know your limits. And in high school you think you’re on top of the world. Coach Izzo does a great job of making sure (you understand) this is reality. This is what you have to work on. This is what you have to get better at. You have to earn your spots. You have to prove it to everybody.”
What Kohler figured out quickly, he said, is that he had to transform physically, melt off fat and build muscle. It took a lot of dedication, but the 6-9, 240-pounder built himself to the point that he could handle center minutes in the Big Ten even as he started at power forward. He started 69 of 72 games in his last two seasons, averaging 7.5 rebounds per game in 2024-25 for an Elite Eight team before posting his career highs this season.
“It was a lot of body work,” Kohler said. “I changed my diet. I changed my lifting routine. I gave it a lot of attention to detail because diet was a huge thing for me. It transformed my body. It helped me with conditioning. It helped me mentally. It helped me with all those things. When you’re playing for Izzo, you might think you’re playing great, but he makes sure to push you. He doesn’t consider his job done until you’re on the floor and saying, ‘I can’t do much more.'”
Kohler is taking what he learned from Izzo and trying to push himself the same way in the pre-draft process.
Though Kohler has added muscle to his frame and trimmed up, there are still some questions about his athleticism and, in particular, his ability to guard the perimeter and handle guards in switches. To get better there he’s leaned further into conditioning and tried to take advantage of his roots.
Kohler grew up in American Fork, Utah, on the north shore of Utah Lake, about 20 minutes north of Provo and 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City. So just by working out at home, he has the advantage of working in elevation, which taxes the body in exactly the way he wants.
“A lot of that is conditioning and being able to use your brain and use your feet at the same time,” Kohler said. “A lot of people, when they get fatigued and out of shape they can’t use their mind and their feet at the same time. For me, I head out to Utah and was running miles on the track and trying to work on sliding my feet, make sure I can switch on to quicker athletic guards. Especially if I’m playing 4 man like I was at MSU, it can be 1 through 4 switch and you have to guard guards. … I used my time in Utah, especially in elevation to make sure I tired myself out.”
Kohler said he thinks he’s seeing an impact in workouts so far. The Pacers’ workout was just his second after a workout in Memphis and he has another one coming with the Jazz back home in Utah, but he does believe he’s handled the competition well so far.
Kohler will more likely have to make his NBA career through the undrafted free agent route rather than being taken somewhere in the first two rounds, but he seems devoted to using workouts to make the best case he can.
“Some people think I can’t move as quickly as others,” Kohler said. “But I use these workouts as motivation. I feel like in the Big Ten there are a lot of bigs and forwards who can either move really fast or be really strong. I want to show at these workouts that I can rebound and defend and score against anybody.”
Dustin Dopirak covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Jaxon Kohler uses lessons from Tom Izzo in pre-draft workouts
Reporting by Dustin Dopirak, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
