The Oklahoma City Thunder were ahead of schedule last season. One of the youngest teams in the league earned the Western Conference’s top seed and swept the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual conference champion Dallas Mavericks. The same issue that plagued OKC all season proved to be its downfall against the Mavericks, but recent NBA rumors suggest the team’s preparing to fix it.
The Thunder played with only one big man – Chet Holmgren – all of last season, and Holmgren is more of a stretch five than a true center.
Dallas had Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford on the interior while the Thunder’s leading rebounders were Holmgren and point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That’s not going to work in the playoffs.
But general manager Sam Presti is reportedly aiming to solve that issue this summer.
NBA rumors: Thunder to pursue center Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency
Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in the league’s Most Valuable Player voting. Second-year wing Jalen Williams took major a step forward.
After missing his entire first season, Holmgren played all 82 games and finished second behind Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year.
The Thunder finished the regular season third in scoring and 11th in points allowed. They also finished 27th in rebounding, and that issue reared its ugly head at the worst possible time.
The Mavericks out-rebounded Oklahoma City by nearly five per game. Dallas pulled down more than 12 offensive rebounds a night in the six-game series and averaged 16.2 second-chance points.
Hartenstein, meanwhile, had a breakout postseason for the New York Knicks. He pulled down 7.8 rebounds per game, 3.8 of which came on the offensive end. That led the playoffs for any player who appeared in more than four games.
Per Yahoo! Sports Jake Fischer, the 26-year-old Hartenstein could command a contract worth $20-25 million per season this summer. With only his Early Bird Rights and no real cap space, the Knicks would be limited to offering the 7-footer up to $72.5MM over four years.
Oklahoma City has the cap space to make a significant free agent acquisition this offseason, and considering its most desperate need, Hartenstein would make sense.
Now it’s up to the penny-pinching Presti to make the move.
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