Isaiah Hartenstein appears to be worth every penny of the $87 million the Thunder paid him
In his first 24 seconds of action this season, Isaiah Hartenstein grabbed a defensive rebound, completed a dribble handoff with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, created a potential hockey-style pass for Alex’s 3-point shot Caruso initiated with a short pass to the corner, and cut along the baseline for what would have been a dunk had it not been stripped at the last second.
It was a good start to Hartenstein’s Thunder career, which is now just three games old. Since recovering from a broken left hand, he has been the focus of OKC’s offense on both ends, averaging 15.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and two blocks per game in over 30 minutes per night.
While the Thunder are off to an unsurprising 14-4 start, they lead the Western Conference and enter their NBA Cup group match against the Lakers on Friday night, it was easy to forget that Hartenstein hadn’t even played until a week ago. His absence became even more glaring when Chet Holmgren suffered a hip injury, which kept him out until at least the second week of January.
Enter Hartenstein, who is, barely a 3-point shooter, close to a perfect modern center. He’s a rebounding monster that will net you three to five extra possessions almost every night. He’s a long, athletic rim protector and surgical two-way partner (his six assists per game lead the league since his return and would rank just below Domantas Sabonis’ 6.5 for the entire season). He’s a terrific rim and short roller, and a superb passer of the latter. He finishes strong when he has a line to the rim. His thrusting move is almost automatic when he doesn’t do it.
More to the point, this Thunder defense, as long as you adjust for the pace and times, has the makings of an all-time unit. When fully healthy, they can put just about any formation they want on the court and pair elite perimeter pressure with equally elite rim protection. They’re giving up a league-low 103 points per 100 possessions, and that number would be significantly lower if they hadn’t been forced to play the stretch between Holmgren’s injury and Hartenstein’s return with Jalen Williams 6 feet 8 inches on center.
With the obvious caveat that we’re talking about a three-game sample size — two of which were against the 29th-ranked Blazers offense and the Stephen Curry-less Warriors (Golden State without Curry is an offensive train wreck) — the Thunder are giving up just 92.7 points per 100 possessions this season, according to Cleaning the Glass, with Hartenstein on the floor, and 0.93 points per possession.
These are extraordinary marks, and to think that Hartenstein, Homlgren and Caruso have yet to play a single match together. To say that Hartenstein is a great fit for the Thunder would be an understatement, but it would also be a disservice to his talent. It would fit in anywhere. He was a rock star last season for the Knicks, who simply couldn’t afford to retain him because they were tied to the salary increase they could offer with just his early entry rights.
OKC reached a number that New York couldn’t match: $87.5 million over three years, and in just three games we already see that he’s going to be worth every penny of this deal.