Reuniting with Isaiah Hartenstein would, ahem, feel so good for the New York Knicks, and their fans. It’s also wildly complicated.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst raised an ocean of eyebrows on the latest episode of The Hoop Collective when he mentioned that the 27-year-old has started cropping up in the rumor mill.
"Here's an interesting name: Isaiah Hartenstein," he said. "He's got a team option next year for $29 million. I've actually heard the Oklahoma City Thunder's name in some trade chatter."
If Hartenstein is available and actually gettable, go ahead and count the Knicks among those who will be interested. It isn’t just because the Karl-Anthony Towns experience remains a wild roller coaster. Hartenstein doesn’t provide the same level of floor-spacing, but he is cheaper, younger, much better on defense, and a more versatile playmaker.
New York’s front office would be out of its mind not to be interested in a reunion—assuming one is possible.
Chasing Isaiah Hartenstein is much too complicated
It doesn’t take much dots-connecting to see the Thunder’s logic if they are entertaining offers for the seven-footer. Their payroll could mushroom into the second apron next year when extensions for Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams take effect. From the moment he signed in Oklahoma City, Hartenstein’s $28.5 million team option has been identified as inevitable collateral damage of rising operating costs.
Flipping him now beats losing him for nothing. Especially if the Thunder can land a more cost-controlled big man.
Well, the Knicks can’t offer that. Towns’ salary won’t appeal to an Oklahoma City squad grappling with the challenges of a ballooning payroll. He’s owed $118.1 million over the next two years. The Thunder can easily decline Hartenstein’s team option, and re-sign him for much less.
Figuring out different permutations doesn’t cut it, either. Mitchell Robinson won’t have a ton of appeal to Oklahoma City with his free agency on his horizon, and his own history of injuries. Using him as the trade magnet would also require the Knicks to include one of their primary wings as matching salary. Doing that makes it infinitely harder to build a reasonable offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, regardless of whether he’s moved this season or over the summer.
Also, don’t buy the Isaiah Hartenstein chatter
Navigating these functional gymnastics becomes moot if Hartenstein isn’t actually available. And he might not be.
Just because they’re pursuing fellow Knicks trade target Yves Missi doesn’t mean the Thunder are looking to get out of the Hartenstein business. Chasing another big is more like a hedge. Hartenstein has missed a bunch of time this season with calf issues, and Holmgren is no stranger to injuries himself. Oklahoma City almost assuredly wants Missi as an insurance against further absences, as well as the prospect of Hartenstein pricing himself out of town this summer.
It would be an altogether different story if the Thunder were inside the luxury tax now, and looking to duck it before their cap sheet explodes. They’re not. That gives them little, if any reason, to take calls on Hartenstein unless they’re bowled over by an offer.
The Knicks can try roping in additional teams and incorporate various moving parts to make a real run at the big man who got away. To what end, though? Just so the Thunder can say, “Thanks, but no thanks?”
That isn’t worth the downside of exposing KAT, specifically, to additional trade rumors. He’s already feeling unsettled by the Giannis chatter. A Hartenstein pursuit makes that worse—and, in all likelihood, ends with the Knicks coming up empty-handed anyway.