Rockets working to sign center Isaiah Hartenstein Following center Isaiah Hartenstein's strong showing in the Rockets' summer program and Summer League games in Las Vegas, the Rockets are working toward signing Hartenstein to an NBA deal with hopes they will reach agreement by the end of the week, according to a person with knowledge of the team's plans. Hartenstein, a 7-foot center, played for the Rockets' Rio Grande Valley affiliate with a G League contract last season. Though the Rockets retain his draft rights, having selected Hartenstein in the second-round of the 2017 Draft, he is unsigned and could have chosen to return to Europe or to play another season in the G League. Hartenstein, 20, had played with Zalgiris Kaunas in the Lithuanian league before he was selected by the Rockets. With the Vipers, he averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game, making 57.1 percent of his shots. He averaged 10.3 points and eight rebounds in 21.9 minutes in four Summer League games this month. The Rockets hope to sign starting center Clint Capela, who remains a restricted free agent and also have Nene, Zhou Qi and Chinanu Onuaku under contract at center. Tarik Black, the Rockets' third center last season, is a free agent.
All for it. He’s more capable than Tarik already. Hopefully the deal is similar to what we signed Joe Chee for.
Wow. That's surprising to me. He played well in the SL but well enough to help a championship team? Could they be signing him to trade him maybe?
He’s our 2016 2nd round pick. Last year he took a pay cut to play for RGV, I’m pretty sure he was guaranteed to be signed this season (or traded to a team who would sign him) in exchange for coming over last year.
i don't think he's ready yet. but he's probably pushing to get on the main team or he'll just go back to europe
What's the deal w/ Brandan Wright? I thought he was rehabbing w/ us and haven't heard anything since.
What is even the point of Chinanu Onuaku? Why do we need Clint AND Nene AND Zhou AND Isaiah AND busty Chinanu?
We don’t, I’m gonna assume we either lose capela or we’re gonna deal one of them in hopeful Anderson dump
I'm hoping this signals Nene's imminent retirement. At this point there really is no point in playing this guy twice a week for 15 minutes to occupy a roster spot. Let the younger guys Hart and Qi cut their teeth with some actual burn at the next level, it's the only way they're really gonna get NBA ready.
