Projecting OKC Thunder Starting five. who benefits the most from Isaiah Hartenstein signing?

Projecting OKC Thunder Starting five. who benefits the most from Isaiah Hartenstein signing?

on today’s lock on Thunder podcast who’s going to start for the Oklahoma City Thunder who benefits the most from the a hearten steam contract and are the Thunder the threats out west the favorites to win the conference you are locked on Thunder your daily Oklahoma City Thunder podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day let’s get it going on the lockdown Thunder podcast on the lockdown podcast Network your teams every day I am your host meet member and inside the Thunder beat Rider Thunder on SI Ryland Styles follow me on Twitter Ryland Styles follow the show on Twitter at L thunderpod email the show L thunderpod atg.com on today’s show we’re discussing the Oklahoma City Thunder again signing Isaiah herenstein the biggest free agent signing in team history what will that look like a lot of you have questions and I’ll try to uh you know educatedly guess on a lot of them and see where things shake out so we’re going to get into that who’s going to start are the Thunder of the favorites out west who benefits the most from this signing and more Today’s Show is brought to you by game time go download the game time app create your account use code a locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase so when you look at this situation first of all I I think that you can you know look at the hardenstein conversation the Caruso conversation even and you can get lost in what that means in the scope of the team and and narrow in on the individual when in reality you know these two players specifically you have to look at how they affect the team and the whole body of work and everything in between so we’re going to do that uh coming up but on the on the topic of who starts I still believe that the starting five is going to be SGA Alex Caruso Lou Dort Jay dub and chat and that’s your starting five for most matchups and you stay true to your five out system you stay true to what got you the number one overall seed in the west last year you just saw that style of play navigate an 82 Game season and what have you done to that style of play except for enhance it you’ve got a much better off ball player right Alex Caruso can play the off ball role a billion times better and more effective than Josh skiddy who now gets to go to Chicago play on the ball and play a more uh you know style that’s suited for his game and he’s going to grow and he’s going to develop into something really good in Chicago so it’s the best of both worlds whereas now you’ve plugged out that giddy piece for a guy who shoots 40% from three and is a two-time all defensive member so I I I think that that’s massive and and this style of play obviously can work what I do think about the starting lineup while while well I would you know if I had to project right now if I had to you know lay down a few shekels that’s the starting five I think would that the Thunder would go with I don’t believe it’ll be as rigid as you’re used to I think that there’s certain matchups where uh you could see the Thunder start both Chad and Isaiah but I I think that people really loseing the shuffle the benefit F of being able to elongate these high level Rim protection minutes like what hardenstein can do in the middle is something that no other backup Big Man on this roster can do and we know what cck can do at The Rim when you play them together you’re now at some point gonna have to pay the piper for that you’re at some point gonna have to put on the floor know guys who can’t protect the rim very well to play them separately you’ve now covered all 48 minutes in Rim protection while playing spurts of them so a lot of things are going to be true at once just because you know I I think that AR don’t come with the bench doesn’t mean I believe that that they’ll never start a game with those two guys it also doesn’t mean that they’re not going to play Within the flow of a of a game together I think that for the majority of it it’ll be that starting five of Caruso in place of giddy I think there’s going to be games where they play both both big men right from tip I think that both big men will share the floor together more than the 2% of minutes that um you know Jay will and Chad shared together last year so they’ll play a double big lineup more often this year but in general I think what you’ve really done with this move is you have elongated your front Court rotation and depth and your ability to protect the rim an ability to to uh play your style because even though hardenstein can’t shoot from Beyond The Arc he does everything else extremely thundery he’s automatically the best screener JB’s ever played with he’s automatically the best screener that that Shay’s gotten the benefit of in Oklahoma City he’s automatically gonna be someone uh who can play make out of the short rle who can redirect passes and who can play that thundery style of not having the ball stick to you and play off the catch he’s a really good cutter to file in the back end of this drive heavy offense so like he does everything thundery including physicality rebounding and and the defense he brings as as as I think that he can defend on an island as best you can as a seven-footer you know there there’s few in the league that you’d rather have than him out there at that size so he’s very thundery except for you can’t shoot which is something that you can totally work around for that position and for what he can bring to the table offensively so uh I said to say this I think I think that he’s going to be a really good player for Oklahoma City and I think that I can see on on the comment section um on social media but Oran you know how are they gonna pay $30 million for a backup big man I I mean a backup big man for $30 million you know I I think that there’s a there’s a lot to take from that number one this is not your grandpa’s NBA you know like like these guys are getting paid and they’re getting paid pretty handsomely number two who cares frankly not to be harsh about about it but would it make you feel better if you made $25 million instead of 30 and then at that point right at that point you’re spending $5 million extra to get the best backup big man in the NBA that that I think is a tradeoff worth having especially whenever you didn’t give up any any young assets any draft picks nothing and furthermore for for the notion of like well you don’t pay someone $30 million to come off the bench they clearly think he’s going to be a Stalter listen if there’s any franchise you that’s that’s proven to you time and time again that they don’t particularly care about tradition and public perception and what’s supposed to happen who’s supposed to start who’s supposed to fi positions who’s supposed to be you know the ring leaders and all of this the Thunder have continuously Buck Trends they’re just going to stop now all of a sudden all of a sudden now Isaiah Haren Stein’s 30 is a bridge too far I don’t think so and you can’t let it get lost in the conversation that the reason you’re paying Isaiah hartstein $30 million is because you have the luxury of doing so you have the ability to financially afford it and optically afford it of this is the benefit of drafting so well this is the benefit of two of your top three guys being on rookie contracts this is the benefit of not yet having sh on a supermax contract it’s because you’ve gotten them so good so young that you can afford to do this and so whenever you compare a salary to other players in that starting lineup it makes no sense like yeah he makes more money than the starting five because of the stage of his career that he’s at and and that won’t get lost in translation so the the price tag is not going to Define the minutes the price tag is not going to Define his role so again I I think that the majority of the games we started by the Caruso in place of gidy but there’s going to be opportunities to start you know hartenstein with chat and at that point it’s an interesting conversation um and I get why people want to have that conversation it’s more interesting to to kind of figure out well who would you bench between Caruso and D you know me personally you if if you want wanted to have that conversation and and for games where they do start big I would look at Kus Off the Bench only because like that’s not an indictment on him versus Dort or whatever but because I think that like functionally peruso could help the bench unit more than Dort could um as a as a playmaker and and if if cas’s on the ball he’s a better off ball shooter and things of that nature but nonetheless I I think that while it won’t be as rigid is like hey if these five guys are healthy that starting one through 82 um you know perhaps there is more you know lenience there in terms of uh you evaluating the matchups I do think that that’ll be their bread and butter and if they need to course correct in the in the first three minutes you have the ability to do so whereas before um you were looking at a team that couldn’t handle the curve so to say they had their fast ball and it was a good one the small ball vers lineup was a good one but if you went big they they couldn’t necessarily go as big as you and match up there now they can and they can they can accomplish anything on the floor so are they the favorites out west we’re going to ask that question coming up uh plus who benefits the most from these moves but first want to say right now about a good friends over at game time check out game time today game time’s great game time is the best place for you to get your tickets whether it’s concerts movies theaters sporting events whatever you’re going to go to whatever you’re into it’s at game time right now uh because if you’re gonna go to MLB game this summer uh it’s a lot of fun or even a minor league baseball game this summer in Oklahoma City it’s a lot of fun that you can go to game time and get last minute deals saving up to 60% by buying last minute tickets to sporting events concerts comedy shows and theaters uh you can also get Flash Deals and Zone deals I love their Allin pricing I love the fact that I can just see everything up front the entire total no surprises no fees at check out I know exactly what I’m paying and bargaining for whenever I’m on the front-facing app you can also get views from your seat so if you’ve never been to that venue before and maybe want to go see uh some traveling acts you can go there uh with the views from your seat so go there right now it is uh going to take the guesswork out of buying tickets this summer with game time go download the gam Time app create your account use code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase terms and conditions apply again create your account redeem code l c e d o n NBA for $20 off your first purchase Go download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest prices guaranteed we’re back on the lockdown Thunder podcast on the lockdown podcast Network your teams every day thank you so much for making us your first listen every single morning every single day we’re here for you talking Thunder basketball a little bit of a surprise as the Pacers have just sign James wisman uh you know I don’t know I don’t know why they continue to bury Dre Walker down the depth chart you know and and maybe maybe Walker will should be and is elevated above wisman but nonetheless uh interesting news breaking on the Pod but who benefits the most from the Thunder signing Isaiah hardstein I think it’s Chet holgren but but maybe not for the reasons you think like yes it’s going to be awesome that the Thunder have the benefit of like when they take Chad off the floor um you know you now put in a rim protector who who can you can pass the Baton to whereas last year you look at the plus minuses and what happened with you off the floor it was not that seamless transition uh and I think that whenever you have the dueling big lineups of those two guys it’s going to look really good for the Thunder um but who I think benefits the most from this entire offseason is Chad hardstein included Caruso included everything included and the reason why I think that is because you have to look at these moves in the in the totality of the picture let’s take the Caruso for giddy starting five walk with me down that path of what happened last year with the starting five they were good they plus eight everything it was difficult life was hard to get to that plus eight that’s how good this team was that life was hard on them and they still were a A plus in their starting five but why was that why was life difficult because they were crossmatching and they were able to put their big man on giddy to stay close to the rim and also not force their big men to play in space with chat so that that had a lot to do with chat as well as it did with Josh K’s three-point shooting but a lot to do with chat now here’s the kicker you can still choose to defend the Thunder that way like the cross matching will not be completely eliminated because shot variant is way more um you know again variant than chat playing in space with a center and just dancing with your guy to the rim so I think that they’re still crossmatch here’s the kicker though in that Cross Match you’re now kicking to a guy in the Corner who shoots 40% from three and as we’ve seen with coaches like playoff series the biggest moment the biggest setting the biggest scenario of a season you go face the New Orleans Pelicans and they’re dumping the ball inside of Valen chunis for the you know first 11 straight points of the game but they have to get out of that once you start hitting your shots and once you kind of counter that right they have to get out of it and they have to go small and they have to play your game and you dictate the terms what you can do now is dictate the terms of agreement of of arrangement whenever you’re looking at crossmatching because if you crossmatch on the Thunder and leave cruso open right it’s a 40% three-point shooter he’s gonna knock him down and you’ll say well they’ll just switch over to to L Dort like so now instead of having two inconsistent Shooters you only have one L Dort last year you know had had an uptick in three-point shooting and and L Dort was a really good three-point shoter that if you just leave him completely alone he’s going to make you pay so life just gets easier because then if you start to play straight up on these guys and you hide your worst guard on on door and you know you put your Center on chat you get chat top of the key and he is just feasting so like that’s a massive benefit then you look at when they do play double big and Chad slides over to play that like roving jiren Jackson Jr type role that can annihilate teams down the stretch of games should it be a competitive game where you need um everything and and and it benefits the Thunder as a whole of look at the way they can play now without a shadow of a doubt the Thunder are the best small ball team in the NBA like like we’ve established that we’ve seen that we we we’ve you know experienced what that’s like but now it goes from this team is too small to this jumbo lineup of a functionally so again hear me about functionality Shay Caruso dub Chad hartenstein that is that is massive size across the board that is mass massive functional size across the board and you even look in the division the Timberwolves you yeah they have cat and Rudy go be the Thunder out out you know physical those those timber wolves with that big lineup kuso can defend one through one through four you’ve seen that the improvement from Trey defensively and the way he can disrup things defensively you’ve seen J be able to be able to play defense and if you slide him up to the three I think he’ll be even more effective in those double big lineups so I think that the double big lineups will be a tool in the toolbox and will be something that they go to but again you’ve got to kind of pick and choose when to throw that card because in a 48 minute game you’re going to need to space out those minutes of always having a big man on the floor getting the proper rest for them and then finding out when you can put them together to just suffocate a team it’s exciting I mean you just have every option available there is no way you know to dictate things for okoma City now just like any team in the world right they G have a night where they just can’t hit a shot they G have a night where they’re not crisp rotating defensively but at their best at their Apex together this team complements each other well this team can play a lot of different styles in one night to where it’s tough to scout it’s tough to it’s tough to have a game plan it’s tough to um you know prepare for all the different looks that they can give you and that’s what kuso’s done that’s what Haren Stein’s done uh and then you still have the draft class that you know in a year from now you’ll talk about topit but for right now know Dylan Jones is a is a very versatile player who you know I think could get minutes as a rookie AJ Mitchell’s a a spunky fun electric score who I I would assume plays a lot with the blue early on but you know potentially as he refines his skill set um you know defensively potentially that that that helps uh for him to get on the floor in the NBA so are they the favorites out west I think that they are I I think that you know you look at what they have and people are you know a bit nervous I I think to to fully say it uh although they’re going to be a popular pick by the time this this Summer’s over but we we’ve seen yic do it right we’ve seen Luca do it the bottom line is we’ve seen Shay do it too like last year he was incredible in the playoffs he was the best player on the floor in every series he happened to lose the second round to Luca but but he was incredible and if you project Chad and JB to take that step forward as like a rising star you now have a top five guy without a doubt like there’s no doubt shades the top five back-to-back top five finishes in MVP runner up last year you have two Rising Stars flanking him who I wholeheartedly believe will play an All-Star caliber year now will they make an All-Star team who knows one of them probably will but but it’s tough to get three up there you’ve got to be winning a ton of games to get three in in the All-Star game um especially to be cracking your first ever all-star teams you know for each of them so Allstar caliber level I think they’ll both be playing there lanking a top five guy in the league and then you just look at how seamlessly uh these these players fit together and the depth works together and you really see how how the Thunder are poised to match up with any play style any time and so I would pick the Thunder to win the West right now and depending on where you look you know they’re the favorites in in some places and I think that by the time October rolls around and you start to um you know here all the different shows and prognosticators and everything else they will be a popular pick to win the conference they’ll be a popular pick um to to run away with the West maybe in the in the regular season when you talk about kind of the mentality of this team I think that this team will still take that regular season extremely seriously which you can’t guarantee in the modern NBA that that a lot of other teams will and then in the playoffs functionally if healthy which is the caveat for every team ever uh if healthy in the playoffs this team can can play any way that you need them to play and be good at it so I I think that the Thunder will win the West this year I think that the Thunder will be awesome this year and we’ll see if that if that all comes true uh you know it’s easy to look at that on paper it’s obviously got to come true on the court we’ll talk about what’s next for this team coming up we’re back on the lockdown ther podcast on the lockdown podcast Network your teams every day thank you so much for making us your first listen every single morning every single day we’re here for you talking Thunder basketball folks whenever you look at this team I know that like it’s almost like a sugar rush of like the cruso deal the draft isaah hartstein what’s next what’s next what’s next perhaps what’s next is you get ready to go for next season you get ready to go for the for the uh uh fall now um maybe they make another move and and they and they technically have the ability to do that uh but the Thunder have historically whenever they’ve been at this level like when they’ve been this good and then they’ve had you know this amount of expectations they’ve taken an open rusher spot into the season with them and you know they still have that 8 million dollar you know mle which they can take into the season with them for the buyout market and things like that so it’s not a guarantee that they do anything else it’s also same prey uh so you know he can pull off anything in the world at a drop of a hat so maybe uh this will all look silly I think that the key ingredients are are in the kitchen right now you may maybe you’ll come home with a backup jar of salt but like everything you need is crossed off the list you know when your wife’s into the store with a with a list uh you did good you did good you got everything now you know may maybe you snuck something extra in there like like a Hershey’s bar or something that’s fun but and what you need to cook the dinner I think you have so I wouldn’t foresee a massive move happening um or or a massive trade I I think that it’s pretty well um I think it’s pretty well laid out right like what this roster is and the Thunder are clearly comfortable taking that spot into into the season you know one thing you could do is you know maybe you reward somebody like maybe you reward K Johnson who was excellent in the g- League last year U put him on a standard deal who knows maybe maybe you you just slide AJ Mitchell in there and and put you know kante back on a two-way although we expect that AJ Mitchell will be on a two-way deal we don’t really know that for a fact you know we’ll wait and see what the team announces um so you know I think that that’s kind of what you’re looking at you’re not looking at some massive deal uh in terms of like Lor Markin can you just please give that part a rush I I don’t think it’ll happen and I think that you shouldn’t want it to happen really you shouldn’t want to give up a ton of assets which is what Danny a will make you pay look at his trade history a ton of assets for someone who you have no pray of resigning or you’ll have to sacrifice one of your core three and I believe without a shadow of a doubt that this core three every member of it is is better than Lori markon and will have a better career than Lori Markin so I I wouldn’t want to you know see the Thunder pay the piper of what it would take to get Lori Mark into like seven first round picks and case Wallace and whatever else for a guy that you just can’t you just can’t bring back you the Thunder cannot sign and no team can sign for Max contract guys the Clippers who literally cannot tank like like they owe their draft pick from now of kingdom come to someone else they literally cannot take and they bed Balmer boxed at the fourth year for Paul George whenever you can’t pivot like there is no pivot there is no okay this is over let’s wash our hands of kawhai wash our hands of of Russ and Harden and it’s just over like they literally cannot pivot but they also could not give Paul George the fourth year and didn’t think that that was wise financially didn’t think that that was wise with the new CBA repercussions so I I just think that the writing’s on the wall like why would you want to bring in a fourth Max slot who needs a Max so you just you just can’t bring back plus you know as I’ve been saying since the L markting stuff started we’ve seen Lori Markin as a fourth option he’s not good now maybe he’s grown maybe he’s changed of course the fourth option in this environment is much different than the fourth option that he had before but it’s also tough once you’ve reached that number one option Allstar level to put the toothpaste back in the two and so then would you rather have Chad you know taking the shots and being on Ball and and and you know exploring his game or Lori jdub or Lori because the one that’s for sure not gonna get pumped by Lori is Shay but like those two guys I think that you would much rather see this team Bank on the dub and chat growth and be able to have such a such a robust rotation and depth around them to complement them and to get them where they need to go than to place your bets on two years of laor marinin who you know we haven’t really seemen been good in that in that role so I I just don’t think that the Lor stuff will happen and I I wouldn’t do it personally if I was in the position of the Thunder I I just would not make that move because I think that you you know you you have those kind of guys that that can take you there that can get you to a championship yeah those kind of guys at the top and at the bottom and I think that something that Mike get unhold a little bit of like when you look back at last year the fact that the Thunder played 11 guys to a casual NBA fan feels feels unnecessary because they were healthy it wasn’t it was entirely necessary and it I think helped them be healthy but also it was entirely necessary because you got the growth and development of playing those guys and the odds say and you know knock on wood no one ever wishes this on anyone or anything like that the odds say you’re not going to experience that level of Health again right like that’s what the odds say they had a they had a unbelievably good year of health so mortgaging that depth that you’ve cultivated where you can go 112 deep you would not want to sacrifice that in my opinion for Laura marketing whenever you already have the guys at the top necessary so what’s next I I don’t think really much of anything I mean I think that you you could reward Kath Johnson I think that you could bring in someone of that ilk um but I don’t think that there’s going to be another Splash move I think that I think there could be a move I’ll put to like this it won’t be a move that like nine sicko fans you know enjoy right like it will not be a move that that you know unifies Twitter like yesterday’s move did or like the Caruso move did it’ll be a move that like die hard I will listen to lockdown thunder in August fans like really like and really are interested in but the Casual Observer they’re on the football season so if they do another move I think it’ll be like that probably but again you know Sam prey you can pull a rabbit out of his hat any time that’s Today’s show thank you so much for listening so so far this week we’ve done uh our free agency preview arenstein uh signing and now who’s going to start on tomorrow’s show we’re projecting to have Brandon rbar of course it’s a holiday week so I’m not gonna not going to hold him to it if he if he can’t get it done but we’re projecting to have Brandon AAR on tomorrow’s show uh and then we’ll go from there so thank you so much for listening and until tomorrow be good and be good to one another

The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed Isaiah Hartenstein to a massive deal, who will the OKC Thunder start? Can the Thunder match up with everyone out West? How will the Thunder complete their roster? Lauri Markkanen trade doesn’t make sense for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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