Oklahoma City's rebounding woes led to a missed second chance opportunities, and Isaiah Hartenstein could excel at expanding those second chances to better position the Thunder offense.
Size, length on the interior, mobile as a paint defender and reliable as a finisher at the rim who could possibly get his 3-point shot rolling down the line, there's a lot to like about the Thunder signing the former New York Knick. Alternating with Chet Holmgren, there will always be a 7-footer in the lane deterring rim pressure. But beyond that, Hartenstein offers a resource that the Thunder can utilize and expand off of greatly.
That is Harstein's ability to haul in offensive rebounds, and thus many more second chance opportunities for the Thunder's dynamic offense to take advantage of. That's not something Oklahoma City excelled in last season either, so there's heaps of improvement that can be made in that department that could potentially propel the Thunder to be the highest scoring team in the association.
On the year, Oklahoma City was the third best scoring team in the NBA, tallying 120.1 points a night and doing so on 49.9% shooting, which was also the third best in the league. Despite them being one of the top scoring teams throughout the season, they'd fell dead middle in field goals attempted at 89.3 shots per game.
Hartenstein can help the Thunder improve on that, as he averaged a career-best 3.3 offensive rebounds throughout his 75 games a season ago. The Knicks were the best offensive rebounding team in the league, whereas the Thunder came next to last. Adding just a few more shots a game could be what helps Oklahoma City edge out a neck-and-neck series in the point total like against the Dallas Mavericks this past playoff run. That could be another avenue for the value that Hartenstein will add, and each teammate on the floor will benefit from that.Nathan is a senior at the University of Oklahoma majoring in Public Relations set to graduate in May 2024.
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