Oklahoma City Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein’s return from injury appears to be imminent. After missing the first 15 games of the season with a broken left hand, Hartenstein has been upgraded to “questionable” for Wednesday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Hartenstein, 26, suffered what the team called a “small, non-displaced fracture” in his hand during a preseason game on Oct .15 and has been sidelined since. If he is able to make his regular-season and team debut for the Thunder on Wednesday, he will fill their glaring hole at center. Since Chet Holmgren broke his hip on Nov. 10, they have pivoted to full-time smallball: 6-foot-9 wing Ousmane Dieng is their only player taller than 6-foot-6 who has seen the floor, and Dieng has played a total of five minutes in their two most recent games. (Jaylin Williams, who stands 6-foot-9 and actually plays center, has been out with a hamstring strain all season.)
Oklahoma City landed Hartenstein in free agency last summer on a three-year, $87 million contract (with a team option on the final season). The appeal of the addition was obvious: he could solve their rebounding problem, make their defense even stronger and help them diversify their offense. Now, after starting the season 11-4 with the league’s best defense and second-best net rating, the Thunder can finally start figuring out exactly how Hartenstein fits in their system, albeit without Holmgren.
There may be an adjustment period as Hartenstein’s new teammates learn how to play off of him. Oklahoma City’s spacing will be a bit different with him on the court, and, since he’s one of the best passing bigs in the league, it will be able to create offense in ways that it could not previously. Don’t be surprised, though, if Hartenstein immediately makes the Thunder better on both ends, if only because he’ll get them some extra possessions and help them defend the interior without fouling. OKC ranks No. 26 in offensive rebounding percentage, No. 29 in defensive rebounding percentage and No. 28 in opponent free-throw rate.
If any part of this process proves challenging, it’ll probably be when Holmgren is back in the picture. The 22-year-old has almost exclusively played without another big on the floor during his time with the Thunder, so sharing the frontcourt with Hartenstein might not feel natural right away. Ideally, though, by the end of the season, Oklahoma City will have had plenty of reps with Hartenstein as the lone big, Holmgren as the lone big and the two of them together. At this point, the team has already played a lot more minutes without either of them than it would have preferred.