The Utah Jazz wants to make sure the voters who choose the NBA’s All-Rookie team, the Rookie of the Year and the All-Defensive team remember center Walker Kessler when they fill out their ballots at the end of the season, so the team sent them some reading material – a comic book.

“The Sheriff” uses Kessler’s nickname as the basis for a western-themed comic featuring the rookie as the hero. The Jazz also issued a comic called “The Finnisher” to promote the All-NBA candidacy of forward Lauri Markkanen, who is from Finland.

Kessler picked up his nickname in college as he led the nation in blocked shots at Auburn and won the National Association of Basketball Coaches Defensive Player of the Year Award.

“Everyone’s familiar with ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ so it kind of originated from that,” Kessler said during an appearance this week on the “Howdy Partners” podcast. “It kind of became something else. And then once I started becoming a defensive-minded player, like ‘This paint ain’t big enough for the both of us,’ and now it’s kind of like ‘Protect the paint,’ so now it’s the Sheriff.”

Kessler has continued his shot-blocking in the NBA. He ranks fourth with 170 blocks this season. There have been 12 games this season in which one player blocked at least seven shots. Kessler has four, and no other player has more than two.

Kessler is the eighth rookie in the past 40 seasons with four or more games with at least seven blocked shots. The other rookies on the list are Manute Bol, Tim Duncan, Mark Eaton, Alonzo Mourning, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson.

Kessler said he wants to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

“I got the college one, so I definitely want to get the DPOY,” Kessler said. “That would be cool. That would be really, really cool. I’m confident that I’ll get it eventually.”

Kessler has averaged 9.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game for Utah. Since becoming a regular in the starting lineup, he has averaged 11.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks over the past 32 games. He leads the NBA’s rookies with 19 games with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Kessler also leads the NBA in shooting percentage at .720 by making 285 of his 396 shots. Only one player in NBA history with at least 400 shots in a season has had a better percentage – Wilt Chamberlain at .727 for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1972-73 campaign.

“It’s important for players to never stagnate in their skill development,” Kessler said, “and I’ll never be satisfied, so definitely want to see my game get extended to the 3-point line, being in kind of that stretch-big role. You look at players like Brook Lopez that their whole game has changed from when they first started in the league.”

Kessler has taken two 3-point shots this season, but he said his game had grown.

“At Auburn, I didn’t really slash or cut a lot – a lot of pick-and-roll stuff, a lot of slip stuff,” Kessler told reporters on Monday, “so definitely been watching a lot of film and just learning. A lot of it just comes from experience. …

“I pride myself on being pretty cerebral and learning what works for me.”

On Saturday, Kessler reached a career high by scoring 31 points in a 121-113 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

“I didn’t think I was going to get a 30-point game,” Kessler said. “I thought the triple-double with blocks was going to come before the 30-point game.”

Kessler’s rookie season has six games remaining unless Utah can rally in the next 10 days. At 36-40, the Jazz are 1.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, which holds the final spot in the play-in tournament that will decide the seventh and eighth seeds from the Western Division in the NBA playoffs.

The Jazz plays the Boston Celtics, who have the second-best record in the NBA, on Friday night and the Denver Nuggets, who have the best record in the West, on April 8.

But they also play Oklahoma City on April 6 and have two games remaining with the Los Angeles Lakers. At 38-38, the Lakers are two games ahead of Utah.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.