I'm sure his wife needed a lot of convincing to relocate from NYC to boring ass OKC. That said money talks I'm sure she can live with a couple years when you are getting 87 mil
I’m thrilled for iHart. Always liked that guy. Worked hard, went through the D-league, never complained. I’m hoping the Thunder let him shoot the three pointer. He can do it!
Just can't wrap my brain around giving him that much money when you could've had JV and 20+ million left to spend.
Hart is an elite advanced stats defender and at the position they need to hang with Minny, Denver, and Dallas. Plus they have so many key players on rookie scale deals still so when he expires they can pay out.
I like this overpay for similar reasons why I liked us overpaying FVV. They have so many picks that they can also draft and develop another big to take over when Harty expires and big payouts occur.
JV just doesn't fit OKC at all on offense or defense. Hartenstein is the Energizer Bunny that never stops moving. The next 3 years should be the peak of his career, which is OKC's championship window.
The NBA is different now. The Thunder acquired two white dudes and improved their defense, toughness, and rebounding. Caruso, SGA, Williams, Chet, Hartenstein, Dort, Wallace, Williams, Joe, Wiggins, and probably more I'm forgetting.
This is a smart and well thought out signing. While 87 million over three years is a lot of money - it is front loaded, when the Thunder have more cap space to spend. Also - Hartenstein fits the style or play and needs of OKC perfectly. He will help them win more than the other options in free agency, and that is why the Thunder signed him. They have now improved quite a bit with Caruso and Hartenstein.
They were the 1 seed in the West last year while being super young and just scratching the surface on an MVP candidate…and they just improved a lot imo. Frustrates the crap out of me!!!
This is kinda like our FVV signing last year. Price doesn't matter since they have to hand out extentions soon and will lose their cap space either way. Might as well roll it into a contract for a guy you like, fills a need, and can hopefully trade later on if needed. Cap space isn't like real money, it's use it or lose it. Plus Harty's advanced numbers were actually kinda crazy last year. He finished top 70 in fantasy too.
People are saying “front loaded.” Just to clarify, NBA doesn’t allow front loaded contracts in the sense that the NFL does. For iHart, this just means his contract is decreasing at max decrease of 5%, vs having max raises of 5%. Also, his 3rd year isn’t guaranteed.
I didn't realize that about the 3rd year. This contract now becomes a 100% no-brainer and all arguments against it crumble. OKC will pick up the option on the 3rd year because he's either (1) very effective and they want him back or (2) an attractive trade asset because of his golden, non-guaranteed, expiring contract. Unreal! Either way, m'boy is gonna get all $87 million.
Thunder have their elite 2022 guys on rookie deals until the Hartenstein contract team option year - great deal for them
Spotrac is reporting only $59,526,316 is guaranteed, which exactly equals the sum of year 1 and 2 at 5% decreases per year However, they still have the contract marked as “Estimate,” so they might not have confirmed, yet.
Hartenstein is black. BTW, this contract looks kind of like FVV's, except that Harty is much younger. They may actually pick up the 3rd year option if he pans out nicely. Not bad for OKC.
