Why Isaiah Hartenstein makes Thunder LEGIT NBA Finals contenders | Hoops Tonight

Why Isaiah Hartenstein makes Thunder LEGIT NBA Finals contenders | Hoops Tonight

what’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter so you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball so where does Isa Isaiah hartenstein specifically fit within this team on both ends of the floor so the initial reporting I’ve seene is that Oklahoma City does not intend to start Isaiah hartenstein they intend for him to come off the bench but obviously he’s going to play 25 to 30 minutes a night and will have a lot of crossover with Chet homr inevitably they will play together quite a bit so really it’s about having multiple looks they’ll have a small look right well they’ll have Shay on the floor with Jay dub Alex cruso Lou Dort Chad hrin there’s a lot of perimeter speed there five guys who can all defend multiple positions and can space the teams out on the other end of the floor that’s their small look now without a real forward that that will have it’s a it’s a really small look but that a look that they will have and it will work in most matchups it’s really just some of the bigger teams that will give them issues there but then they’ll also have a big look where chett and Isaiah hartenstein will share the floor together now what I want to start with and I’m going to go over it as a quick monologue for our podcast audience and then we’ll go over to the clipboard but defensively what I really like about having hartenstein and chette together is it gives you the ability to put Chad in a position where he’s the low man rather than the guy who’s defending ball screens when you have real length on the backline that buys you flexibility for the ball screen Defender to come higher up into actions more aggressive on the ball because the low man has has to be in two places at once the low man the guy that’s on the backline when you’re screen Defender running up to defend the ball screen again I’m going to show a vis visual example of this in a minute he is responsible for the rle man coming down the lane and for the man in the corner right and so there’s a certain like stunting recovering element there’s a lot of like really hard Closeouts there’s there’s a lot of ground coverage both vertically under the rim and in terms of covering ground out to the corner that comes from that position and like going from a Josh giddy in that type of role or an undersized you know guy a guy who’s not as big like a Jaylen Williams or Shay G Alexander those guys did decently enough it’s not like they’re not capable of being the low man but they just don’t bring enough height or athleticism to that position and what that does is that puts a lot of pressure on Chad when he’s defending those ball screens to make sure that he doesn’t let the rle man get behind him because if he does that puts a lot of pressure on the backline of Oklahoma City’s defense when you have Chad on the backline and Isaiah hartenstein defending the ball screen you can have Isaiah hartenstein be aggressive out at the level attacking the ball handler because Chad brings so much ground coverage and verticality to that low man position so let’s go over to the playsoft whereare and we’re going to take a look uh in more detail at what I was talking about here so I have a setup here in a typical kind of like ball screen setup right so this number three this the small forward is spacing out above the break on this side this guy’s going to be in position where he can dig down at the nail potentially or stay home he’s going to be somewhere in this range right we have the strong side corner shooter this guy might be a little bit up the lane line but this guy is under pretty explicit instructions to not overh helpu out of the strong side corner we have the ball screen coming and we have our ball handler right so in this case let’s imagine that this is Chad and this is Josh giddy as the ball screen comes in the event that they’re icing what the uh the the main point of attack Defender will do is play this high side and force this ball handler to work downhill this way right but what I want to look at I want to start with the ice and then we’ll look with our regular coverage after that at that point responsibility is to basically be in to to cover both of these guys as this ball handler is funneling back this way and this guy’s pressuring from behind this guy’s rolling into this space right as he’s rolling into this space if this is Josh giddy he is going to have a hard time bothering a lob pass here and a skip pass to the corner that’s a lot of ground to cover for Josh Giddy and so as a result he’s not going to come up this high and now Chad has to drop a little bit further back to keep this roll Man Behind in front of him he can’t let the roll man behind him because if he does that’s going to put a lot of pressure on this low man here right this guy’s gonna keep working downhill this guy’s gon to keep pressuring over the top Chet’s kind of working in playing that middle ground right but now imagine a situation where it’s Isaiah hartenstein and Chet hren is now the Forman in this case if this guy is icing the ball screen and trying to force him back toward the sideline he can come really high and aggressive because if this fiveman gets behind him into the Zone jet can stand right here and provide a good vertical deterrent to any sort of pass over the top and if this guy the ball handler throws a skip pass and it gets over here to the fourman Chad has the length in athleticism to cover that ground and recover and while he’s closing out while that ball’s in the air hartenstein can recover back into the lane and so again by virtue of having a real height length speed Advantage at this fourman position you can trust him to actually be two places in one at once over here by being aggressive on the ball handler you can get the ball out of this guy’s hands right whereas if this is Josh Giddy and Chad has to be a little bit more cognizant of the rle man now this guy has some space to operate in this part of the floor where he can get to floaters mid-range games maybe try to bait Chad up and then hit this guy maybe Josh kid’s out of position or maybe he’s just not tall enough to bother the rle man again this was this was an area where they struggled last year so by virtue of having Isaiah hartenstein to add to that look you give yourself an aggressive pick and roll coverage because Chad can function as the low man in their defense in general in general like we’ve seen this type of setup work in a bunch of different cases right like the this is what the Nuggets did they put Nicole yic aggressive up in a high drop because they trusted Aaron Gordon to be able to be two places at once in the backline we uh uh the Milwaukee Bucks for years did that with Brook Lopez bring Lopez into a higher drop coverage We Trust Giannis to be able to be both places at once or even when Brook Lopez would deeper drop against specific matchups Giannis was just able to help off of that weak side corner and provide another layer of Rim DET deterrent Excuse me while also being able to recover out to that corner so again having chat at the four just gives you an entirely different type of athlete at the low man position than what you had beforehand on the offensive end of the floor Isaiah hartenstein becomes now instead of Chad basically your main screening fulcrum in five out and this is something that Isaiah hartstein excels at quickly flowing from side to side in ball screens this is one of the things I talked about um uh with Dron sharp from the Denver Nuggets the Denver Nuggets just drafted like that quick ball reversal is so important from the big man in five out in terms of getting the ball from side to side the threat of the back door cut there’s a lot of like dribbling into dribble handoffs right like Isaiah hardenstein will dribble at the guy who’s coming at him or at the two guys who are running action that are about to flow into him from there he’s supposed to if there’s a slip cut out of it to hit that if the guy like goes to set a screen and then his man stays on the high side he can slip through Haren Stein’s job is to hit that cut if the guy who’s the primary the guy who’s supposed to be coming off the dribble hand off if he’s being top locked like if his Defender is just literally denying him the use of the dribble handoff and he has to back cut Isaiah hartenstein has to make that read if he dribbles that way and nobody’s open it’s his job to quickly interpret that in Reverse like like kind of do a little half spin move switch ball handling hands go the other way and kind of signal to the two guys on the opposite end of the floor hey I’m coming your way now there’s a lot of decision making and playmaking responsibility on the fiveman in ball screens or in in five out offense and that is legitimately something that Isaiah hartenstein excels at as a matter of fact he averaged 4.3 assists per 36 minutes in this last playoff run operating is that type of fulcrum for the Knicks and that was a Knicks team that didn’t have a ton of ball and player Movement by virtue of the the injuries that took place to them and them leaning so much on uh Jaylen Brunson so let’s go back over to the play software and we’re going to I I want to demonstrate this concept for you guys so we’re going to set up in like a typical five out type of setup we’ll get all of our our uh Defenders matched up here now most of this stuff will run and flow out of like a transition push so like imagine the three- man dribbled the ball up the floor in transition and the FIV man’s trailing he’s going to kick the ball back to the fiveman now hartenstein has the ball okay hartenstein has the ball let’s imagine this is Shay gild Alexander and let’s imagine this is Jay dub right so let’s just imagine like a basic five out motion concept like Chicago and all Chicago is as hardenstein has the ball Shay is going to run down and set a pin down just a screen for jayd duub and jayd duub is going to come off of that screen into a dribble handoff with Isaiah hardenstein that is a six Chicago Action that you will see a lot of times in like semi- transition after a quick push in five out offense this is five out kind of flow right so where are the decisions that hartenstein has to make as hartenstein has the ball and is dribbling this way as Shay is setting the screen these guys are probably going to try to switch this screen so let’s say this guy stays on the high side but let’s say this the guy who’s guarding Jay dub just Ling lingers on jdub as he’s coming off let’s say he just lingers on Jay duub for a split second before this switch occurs and Shay slips it as Shay slips that screen it’s Isaiah hartstein responsibility to hit that bounce pass he’s got to be the guy that makes that read right let’s say that uh as Shay let’s say that as Shay’s going running down this guy’s top blocking him and so Jay dub back cuts through and as he back cuts through this guy clears and then let’s say shay then decides okay now I need to run the dribble handoff so now Shay comes up after Jay duub cuts through to come off on the dribble handoff let’s say that his Defender is top locking him if he’s top loocking him and refusing the use of it he’s got a back cut Isaiah hartstein is the guy that has to make that read he’s the guy that has to hit that bounce pass on time and on target let’s say as I mentioned earlier if the entire play falls apart so for whatever reason these guys just do a really good job switching and they as Shay goes to set the screen this guy stays on the inside position to take away the cut he quickly switches on to Shay as this guy tries to come off he top locks him the entire play is butchered Isaiah hartstein is the guy has to go oh this is falling apart let me dribble this way he’ll point at uh whoever the three man is let’s say it’s Alex cruso or or or or Lou Dort and he’s gonna be like go set a pin down for Chad then Chad he’s going to pin down for Chad and then Chad’s going to come off that’s a decision that Isaiah hartstein has to be able to make and then the last one that we hit is just the big man ignoring him so in the event that this guy the defender guarding Isaiah is just sagging way back in the paint and we have our our matchups pretty normal over here and this guy’s coming down to set this pin down Isaiah hardenstein might need to just attack this man and that was something you saw a bunch in the playoffs if you guys remember he did it to Joel embiid too where like embiid would just be playing center field and just ignore hartenstein and sag back into this painted area and hartenstein would just drive at him hard with his left hand and get all the way to the rim those are all the types of reads that your big man needs to make in a five out offense and and there’s a whole other layer to it when he’s already set the screen and now he’s rolling into space we’ve talked about like him needing to score in the short roll like literally made 60% of his floaters in the regular season last year made 66% of his floaters in the playoffs last year so like he can score on the role as well like Isaiah hartenstein I think in a lot of ways represents kind of the quintessential the quintessential modern five out offensive big he can set good screens he can make all of the reads he can make the back door passes he quickly flows from side to side he can score when he’s on the roll he can score when the center’s ignoring him he’s not going to put up massive box score numbers numbers but he’s just a really functional Cog in that type of five out system and again like I don’t even worry about him on the offensive end of the floor with this unit the only guy that I get concerned about in terms of how the offense will function when Haren Stein’s on the floor is Chet Homen and this is something I mentioned earlier but I want to get a little bit deeper into it now going from being guarded by centers who are slower footed usually drop in traditional coverages on ball screens which allows him to Pop Free and Clear to the top of the key when chett spaces above the break his man the center typically sags way back into the lane going from that to that guy guarding hartenstein and now Chet’s being guarded by a forward who is going to apply more ball pressure who’s probably going to be quicker footed at least as quick-footed as Chad to a guy who’s probably going to switch most actions as opposed to dropping in most actions going from that is going to put a lot more difficulty or or just Challenge on Chet in his perimeter skills and so we’re going to go over to the uh the play software one more time and I just want to kind of demonstrate this concept so again if this is Chad we’ll set up a we’ll just set up in like a five out kind of ball screen kind of situation here if this is Chad and Chad’s guarding the ball screen and this team’s going to ice side ball screens by the way guys the reason why I keep talking about icing every single team in the NBA wants to ice side ball screens that’s what they try to do which all that is is this man instead of chasing over the top and then funneling into the middle of the floor this man is actually going to stay way on the high side of the screen and try to force him back towards the sideline there are there are times where ball handlers in the NBA do get to the middle of the floor I don’t want to pretend like that never happens they’ll just a lot of times like they’ll dribble down and then this guy will case and then they’ll use a retreat dribble which will get them back onto that high side so they can get over they will get over and when they do get over the top of the screen the same exact kind of coverage principles apply the only difference you’ll see is sometimes if the ball handler gets way over here they may ask this guy to be the low man once the ball crosses that midline this guy becomes the low man as opposed to on an ice when they funnel this way this guy is your low man right so there are some differences in the floor construct but most teams are going to try to ice that ball screen and funnel him back towards the sideline right so as he funnels him towards the sideline This Guy’s in his drop coverage he funnels towards the sideline he’s chasing Chad is gonna pop right here and he’s going to be wide open and he’s gonna have a slow-footed Center closing out at him that he can cook off the dribble and make stuff happen that’s gonna be hartenstein now now this is going to be Chad guarded by a forward so now what’s going to end up happening is a lot of times Chet’s going to have this guy on him ball pressuring whenever he has the ball when Chad goes to set a screen if Chad like let’s say Isaiah hardenstein goes down to the dunker spot and Jaylen Williams calls for a screen and shett goes to set it this is probably just going to be a switch they’ll just switch the ball screen and now jdb will be going against the forward and shett will be going against the two guard that’s not going to be a drop or an ice the way that you see in most of these ball screen coverages when he’s at the five that so that inherently is going to prevent some of those openings that Chad gets in terms of clean catches on the perimeter the second piece of it is having to run action as we talked about earlier let’s imagine Isaiah hartenstein is our ball handling fulcrum right up here right so he’s our fulcrum and we have hartenstein getting ready to run Chicago Action so Jay duub runs down he sets a pin screen or pin down screen for for Shay Shay comes off the dribble handoff these two guys switch Isaiah hartenstein goes to flow into it these guys let’s say they deny it or let’s let’s just for the sake of making it work or look kind of a different look than we’ve already shown let’s say shay gets over the screen so Isaiah hartstein sets a pick Shay gets over the screen he comes down into this Zone let’s say this guy offers nail help so there’s just a lot of traffic in here around Shay Shay would make the kickout pass over here to Lou Dort at which point Lou Dort would flow down into a dribble handoff where Chad would come off this guy would switch now Lor’s Defender is guarding Chad on the ball and as as Shay kind of Cycles through and Jaylen Cycles up hartenstein is going to turn and go set the screen so now Chad is running action as the primary ball handler in five out because of Isaiah hartenstein being the fivan that is going to put Chad in positions where he’s going against a quicker perimeter Defender who’s pressuring the ball and testing the ability of his handle as he gets into the lane testing his ability to play playmake as they come off of those situations so that like like I said in terms of the offensive end of the four going with two bigs I don’t worry about hartenstein at all my only real concern is will Chad be able to function offensively in more of a perimeter role where the ball in his is in his hands more and to be clear like in the long run I’m a big believer in Chad in what he can do with the basketball in his hand but I just don’t think he’s quite ready for that yet so I’m really curious to see how he fares in that role next year and I do expect some lumps in the regular season especially when they go to those big looks but as long as they can figure that out over the course of the 82 and chat makes enough progress before they get to the postseason that’ll be a viable look for them and they will always have the option of going back to their small ball look which is going to be better this year because you have Alex cruso instead of Josh giddy under any circumstances it’s a better look and I expect them to be better def defensively immediately with hartenstein on the floor alongside Chad I expect those big looks to be stifling on the defensive end of the floor so overall love the fit love that it gives them more matchup versatility in the long run by having a a big look I still think in the long I I still think I’d prefer if they had a forward look as well where Chad has a big forward next to him just just because I think that that would give them a little bit more versatility uh because I think they’ve got like a really good small ball look and a really good big look but they don’t have anything that’s kind of in between that’s traditional that is something I’d like to see them address in the long run but hartenstein gives you the ability to have at least some of those benefits in the short term and you have the flexibility two years from now by virtue of the way that deal is structured so you can be picky and you can be patient in the process of trying to hunt down whoever that fourman was lastly kind of talking about the thunder in the big picture I think the addition of Caruso and hartenstein makes Oklahoma City a top tier Championship contender I probably still have them behind Boston and Denver by some small amount at least until we see these guys play and there are some other teams potentially Philly potentially some other teams who make a trade this summer there are some other teams that that could be entering into that tier Minnesota and Dallas too potentially as we kind of look into it but I definitely view Oklahoma City in that tier right now they just added two quality starting caliber players they only had four of those last year now they have six of them just like Boston does so we’ll actually rank our contenders later in the summer we usually do that like like middle September uh as we kind of get ready for training camp we’ll rank our contenders but I want to wait until all of the signings and trades come through before we do that just because there’s just going to be a lot of new information over the course of the next couple of months but I do at this point have Oklahoma City in that top tier of contenders by virtue of these two moves I really wanted harste to the Thunder we got it it’s going to be a lot of fun [Music] he [Music]

Jason Timpf reacts to Isaiah Hartenstein signing with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jason discusses why the additions of Hartenstein and Alex Caruso push OKC into his top tier of championship contenders as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and the Thunder look to build on their very successful 2023 NBA season.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/ZNnEfjiun0U

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