...I agree this is a great pickup for the Thunder - Thibs turned him into an ELITE defensive player and he is going to make OKC a much stronger team. This is the Thunder trying to push for a title today and they can afford to pay him that much because they have so much young talent on rookie scale deals - most notably Jalen Williams who will be getting his first max contract payment when Zay is an expiring. It means OKC is most definitely in the 2nd cap in 26/27 but likely won't resign Isiah so they can dip back out of it because the new CBA is especially hard on 2nd cap line tax repeaters. All that said - I'm curious how this impacts the development of Holmgren. I thought he was their big of the future. Are they planning on playing Holmgren and Zay at the same time?
I'm sure they didn't sign Harty to a huge contract to come off the bench. And they aren't going to bench Chet either. My guess is that since Giddy is gone, they will play Dort with SGA in the back court, shift JWill to the wing and Chet-Zay twin towers. In fact, Presti might have done the Giddy trade with this signing in mind.
Yeah, that was my assumption too. All the more reason you need your bigs to be able to shoot to not allow teams to collapse the paint with multiple rim protectors(looking at you Alpi!). You saw this year what Dallas could do with a really good rim protector allowing their wing players to just run guys off the line and funnel players to the rim protector...AND you saw how quickly Dallas crumbled when Boston played 5 out with shooters and schemed Lively into places where he couldn't help at the rim.
Williams was playing out of position at PF last year - that 2-3-4 lineup of him with SGA-Jalen-Chet will be monstrous to stop, whether it's caruso/Dort or Hartenstein as the designated stander-arounders. They had definite weaknesses/probelms to address and they addressed them. IMO they are a 60-win type team next year even though nobody bothers to win 60 anymore.
Yeah, Caruso will come off the bench. That's what he is. They benched Giddy in the playoffs, and would do so next season if he stayed. Hartenstein makes their starting lineup much better on offense. Chet can shoot from outside. They are exchanging a non-shooting perimeter player for a non-shooting center.
He fills their needs but that contract is extremely overpaid. People complained so much about Dillon Brooks getting paid 20M Harty is making 30M lol. Nic Claxton signed for 25M, Jonas V signed for 10M don't tell me Harty is 3x better than Jonas V lol Holmgren is best as the PF you don't want him banging down low on a permanent basis.
Always like how he plays and don’t know why rockets cut him suddenly after some good games from harty
~$30M/year for a guy that averages single digits in points and rebounds... I entered the wrong profession.
It's an overpay but I don't think it's an outrageous overpay. Jonas is already over the hill and is likely on his last NBA contract - he can't defend in space at all and this is why he is getting a meager contract on the worst team in the league. I think you are underestimate how good Hartenstein has become - he is a very good player and a defensive leader on his team - significantly better than when he was with us. It's a shame we couldn't dump Dillon and have Hartenstein instead. Plus anyone getting a contract this year is going to be paid more than similar players of the past because cap smoothing rules are currently increasing the contract sizes every year. $25-$30mil sounds right for an effective but non star center in today's cap environment. By the way - OKC is having to do the same thing Houston did last summer. They have so many young players that they have to overpay guys so they can meet cap floors. Also similar to Houston, they front loaded Isiah's deal to make it easier to move in the backend - basically the same thing we did with Brooks and a similar strategy with the non guaranteed years of FVV's deal.
I loved IAH while he was here, and I think he's a good player, who has fulfilled the potential he showed in his stint in Houston. I'm just marveling at how someone of his fairly limited skill set, and stats, is worth that kind of money. astounding what the NBA has become.
the last time OKC overpaid for physicality and defense, they traded Ibaka for Perkins. Presti wizened up ( more likely the owners did ) and managed to get in in FA without having to lose a good young piece
I understand what you are saying and theoretically I agree with you but at the same time unless Hartenstein is playing like Mobley on defense its hard convince me 7 pt 8 reb Harty is 3x better than "old and washed" Jonas V. Nic Claxton making 25M are you saying Hartenstein is almost as good as Claxton and JV combined?
