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Isaiah Hartenstein Rumors
Q. You're bringing the NBA championship trophy back to Germany. Isaiah Hartenstein: Yeah. For the for the first time. I mean I think it's something cool. I grew up there. So just to have the people out there to see it, the kids…
Rich: What kind of coach is Coach Daigneault? Isaiah Hartenstein: He’s a great coach—but like, very good-crazy in a sense. Rich: What do you mean? Isaiah Hartenstein: He would show us—before games or practices—videos of animals hunting, weird stuff like that. He would relate it to basketball somehow. But he’s a great motivator. Very stoic—that gives us confidence. He always says: "zero-zero mentality." Never too high or too low, always in the present. His in-game adjustments are great too. One of my favorite coaches to play for.
Quick Overview Oklahoma City won the physicality on a game by game basis 4-3. They also took the "playing hard energy" wins by the same 4-3 margin. The team with the better Physicality score was 5-2, while the team with the most "Playing Hard Wins" was 7-0. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all players with 226 Physicality Wins, followed by Pascal Siakam (164), Myles Turner (140), Chet Holmgren (134) and Jalen Williams (132). Siakam led in Net Wins with +33. Hartenstein led in Net Wins per 36 min. Siakam was the top "playing hard energy plays" leader with 63 PH Wins, followed by Caruso (55), Holmgren (52), Haliburton (47), and Nembhard (43). Siakam dominated Jalen Williams Head-to-Head (+19 wins), while Shai was +20 net wins against the five IND starters (only losing H2H to Siakam).
Brandon Rahbar: Sam Presti: "When Chet got injured. He [JWill] and Hart are the ones who helped him off the floor. In all my years doing this, I've never seen a player in that much pain. That was really tough. Hart and JWill stayed with him the entire time in the back. It was the greatest act of team support I've ever seen."
Brandon Rahbar: Presti on Caruso and Hartenstein: "Their personalities were so well suited for this particular team at this particular team. I don't know if that'll ever happen that we find two elite role players that are happy being role players that are tailor made for our program."
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Brandon Rahbar: Sam Presti on Isaiah Hartenstein: "I haven't seen a player become more ingrained in this community faster than Isaiah. It needs to be said out loud. He's done more community work than I think I've ever seen a player do."
Bobby Marks: The Jaylin Williams extension starts at $8.45M, declines to $7.74M and stays flat in year 3. 3rd year is a team option Really good value for OKC and Williams There is a pattern in OKC for contracts to decline or remain flat: Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, Isaiah Hartenstein and now Williams.
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Clemente Almanza: FINAL: Pacers 108, Thunder 91 SGA - 21 points, 4 rebounds JDub - 16 points, 3 rebounds Hartenstein - 10 points, 4 rebounds Haliburton - 14 points, 5 assists Siakam - 16 points, 13 rebounds Nembhard - 17 points, 4 assists Toppin - 20 points, 6 rebounds Series is tied 3-3
Doc Rivers on Thunder's defense: They rival the 90s Bulls a little bit
Doc Rivers on Thunder: Our 2008 Celtics were tough, but I still… Listen, I played against all of them. And that one year with the Bulls, Ron Harper, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan. I mean, those are four elite, elite, elite defenders. I don't think there was a better defensive team than that with their size and quickness, but this team is similar. They rival it a little bit.
The final box score didn’t illustrate the full scope of Hartenstein’s impact: eight rebounds (six of them offensive), four assists, one block, one steal and four points in 21 minutes of action. But his overall two-way performance was the perfect encapsulation of why Thunder coach Mark Daigneault needed his presence. “I think it’s big,” Hartenstein told The Athletic following the Thunder’s 120-109 win on Monday night. “I think I provide different things, and I can also change my role, that’s the biggest thing. I can adapt. This series has been less scoring and trying to get guys open. Just me being ego-less in that sense helps the team a lot.”
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