Isaiah Hartenstein has agreed to a three-year, $87 million contract with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, in accordance with The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, taking what many league observers seen as the highest accessible middle off the market early within the NBA’s 2024 free company interval.

The 26-year-old 7-footer is coming off a breakout 2023-24 marketing campaign that noticed him common 7.8 factors, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks in a career-high 25.3 minutes per recreation for the Knicks. After starting the season as New York’s backup 5, Hartenstein moved into the beginning lineup when incumbent Mitchell Robinson fractured his left ankle in December. He flourished within the bigger function, taking pictures 66.3% from the sector in 49 video games as a starter, with the Knicks going 32-17 in these begins. He set stiff screens for star level guard Jalen Brunson within the two-man recreation that served because the engine of a top-10 offense; he served because the back-line rim protector for what completed as a top-10 protection.

Hartenstein grew to become an integral piece of the puzzle for head coach Tom Thibodeau because of his means to contribute on each ends of the ground. The sixth-year veteran hauled in 14.4% of his teammates’ missed pictures throughout his time on the courtroom, the second-highest offensive rebounding price within the NBA, and proved a key complementary offensive cog able to facilitating from the excessive publish — he dished 5 assists per 100 possessions, twelfth amongst 46 facilities to log 1,000 minutes — and persistently splashing floaters, taking pictures a career-best 54% on pictures taken between the restricted space and the foul line.

And he’s much more worthwhile on the opposite finish of the courtroom.

Hartenstein was one among simply 5 gamers within the NBA final season with greater than 80 blocks and 80 steals — an inventory that features former Defensive Participant of the 12 months Jaren Jackson Jr., in addition to All-Defensive First Staff alternatives Anthony Davis and Victor Wembanyama. Opponents shot simply 52.5% when Hartenstein was defending them on the rim, in accordance with Second Spectrum monitoring — the eighth-stingiest mark amongst 113 gamers to contest at the least 200 up-close tries, slotting in slightly below Defensive Participant of the 12 months Rudy Gobert and eventual NBA champion Kristaps Porziņģis, and proper between ace rookie paint protectors Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren.

All informed, Knicks opponents shot simply 60.6% on the cup when Hartenstein was on the ground — which was 6.4% beneath their success price when he was off it and which might have led the NBA over the course of the complete season. New York allowed simply 111.8 factors per 100 possessions in Hartenstein’s minutes; that may’ve ranked third in defensive effectivity for the complete season. And the superior stats cherished him: Hartenstein completed third in defensive field plus-minus and second in defensive estimated plus-minus.

Hartenstein additional burnished his repute through the Knicks’ postseason run, logging almost 30 hard-fought minutes per recreation for a New York workforce that knocked off Joel Embiid and the 76ers in Spherical 1 earlier than finally succumbing to the amassed weight of a litany of accidents and the Indiana Pacers’ offense. As possibility after possibility fell off the board for Thibodeau, he saved giving his remaining rotation gamers increasingly more to do; Hartenstein responded, crashing the offensive boards, slinging backdoor passes from the elbows, curling into open area within the paint for floaters and banging down low, opening eyes across the league by showcasing how he’s developed his recreation within the six seasons since Houston chosen him within the second spherical of the 2017 NBA Draft.

“Anybody on the market, you simply need to be constant. After which it’s a must to be humble,” Hartenstein informed Yahoo Sports activities senior NBA reporter Jake Fischer. “I used to be humble sufficient to see why I wasn’t enjoying proper, see what wasn’t going proper. In these summers, I actually went in and simply labored on my recreation. When the following alternative got here, I actually seized it.”