How Knicks can bounce back after losing Isaiah Hartenstein

How Knicks can bounce back after losing Isaiah Hartenstein

all right let’s talk about how the Oklahoma City Thunder were able to sign Isaiah hardenstein away from the Knicks with the New York Post Knicks beat writer Stephan bondy uh Stephan man we talking about a player whose value just continued to go up throughout the season in the postseason you reported that the Knicks gave it their best effort to resign him the fan base wanted him back so how’ OKC come in and and and get him well I mean you mentioned his value was skyrocketing he became by the time free agency started the top Center free agent on the market after Nick Claxton signed his fouryear $100 million deal with the Brooklyn Nets and you know OKC had the cap space to do this they were you know as I reported they were always the biggest threat to pry him away from New York and they came in they met with him on the first day of free agency making him a priority and then offered him basically a deal he couldn’t refuse 3 years 87 million you know from what I’m told the last year is not guaranteed though so this is the balloon offer that I’ve been reporting on for a while and speculating on for a while um and it was able to get it done um Isaiah hardenstein is going to be tough to replace for the Knicks they gave it their best effort as as you mentioned they offered him the most they could at four years 72 a. half million from the from the moment they could which was after the NBA finals and that offer stayed on the table uh until isaah hardenstein decided to go to Oklahoma City did he want to to return to New York because like we say in professional sports all money ain’t New York money so was it just something that like you said a deal that he just couldn’t refuse for he and his family yeah I mean he wanted he you know he had a great relationship with his teammates he had a tremendous time while he was in New York he absolutely wanted to return and it this was a very tough decision for Isaiah hardenstein um he said it from you know every every time we asked him during the season about this he he expressed his desire to come back so yeah he wanted to come back uh the money was too much I mean there are other factors um besides that I mean you look at the location that he’s going OKC is a legit title Contender um you know and you can ask whether he’ll have a starting role we don’t know that yet because they do have Chad Homam at the five but Sam pry is not going to be paying this kind of money for his player who’s not going to play he’s going to have an important role in the OKC Thunder who like I said are legit title Contender all right so let’s look ahead a little bit where’s this going to leave the Knicks we saw how Paul George just signed with the 76ers Tyrese Maxi resigned with them uh they look like they have their big three in play so do you think that Nicks and the Knicks fans are okay with Mitchell Robinson and Jericho Sims as their Sinners yeah I mean those are what they have right now and it’s not you know there the options are now limited I mean you look across the the board in free agency and there’s not that Center that jumps out of you and says all right well this is the guy we got to go get uh Mitchell Robinson you know people forget he was on an all defense trajectory at the beginning of last season he’s he showed that he can be the top offensive rebounder in the NBA when he’s healthy of course the big question is whether he’s going to be healthy because that has been his number one drawback for certainly the last few season and he’s coming off his second ankle surgery so yeah I mean the Knicks um have the option there they just need the help in terms of Mitchell Robinson they have Jericho Sims uh they have an option to resign precious auua because they still have his bird rights they can exceed the cap to get them other than that if they stay be uh below the second apron they still have access to the non-t taxpayer midlevel exception which is $5 million which you know in today’s NBA doesn’t get you much but it’ll still get you good backup center that’s basically what Andre jumman signed with for and um you know after that you were talking about veteran minimums um you mentioned Jericho Sims he he started a bunch of games for the Knicks the last two seasons he’s athletic and he has upside certainly as a Defender and somebody who can catch lobs and um Dunk Dunk the ball a lot so listen they have options I don’t think it’s the complete end of the world but you remember this Isaiah hardenstein was a huge part of what they did last season he was huge part of what they did in the playoffs uh he was part of that death lineup in January that when you project to this season you say all right well this is this is what we saw in January this is what this team can be when we bring back ogn anobi healthy um and hardenstein was penciled in there at Center he’s no longer going to be there so that’s a big blow well your word has been bond bondie with all the Isaiah hardenstein yeah yeah you can you can take that one that’s free of charge right there that’s not going to cost you 3 years 87 mil at all uh but job on the reports man great job thanks for hopping on thank you appreciate it

Stefan Bondy, The Post’s Knicks beat reporter, joins New York Post Sports anchor Brandon London after Isaiah Hartenstein left New York to sign the biggest free agent contract in Thunder history to discuss how the Bockers’ can replace the 26-year-old center’s production and how Sam Presti was able to lure him from Broadway to Oklahoma City.

#knicks #nba #basketball #thunder #okcthunder #isaiahhartenstein #mitchellrobinson #nbafreeagency #nypostsports

Subscribe and don’t miss out on all the key news, highlights, and interviews about the Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders and what’s buzzing in the sports world too!

Catch the latest news here: https://nypost.com/sports/
Follow The New York Post Sports on:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/nypostsports
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nypostsports/