“Thunder are becoming a true title contender.” – Greeny reacts to OKC signing Isaiah Hartenstein

“Thunder are becoming a true title contender.” – Greeny reacts to OKC signing Isaiah Hartenstein

home including coverage for theft or damage visit progressive.com for more information along with hambo EV Cohen infr grein today Adrien wowski all over NBA free agency as you would expect reported within the hour that free agent center Isaiah hartstein has agreed to Stein has agreed to a three-year $87 million deal with Oklahoma City he leaves the Knicks goes to the west to the Thunder we’re going to get to the Knicks part uh in a second let’s talk the Thunder part here for a second so when you look at the Boston Celtics and them winning a championship and you think about their lineup of Derek white Drew holiday Jason Tatum Jaylen Brown Al Horford Chris ABS porzingis that’s their top six those guys on the low end are at least I would say a b grade wise on offense and on defense individually why do I say it that way there are many players in the NBA now who are either Specialists they’re just good at one offense or defense or just bad at on the other side of it Oklahoma City has put together a roster where they now have between hartenstein Stein um as well as Jaylen Williams as well as SGA and Alex Caruso and Chad holgren and L Dort guys that are at least to be on offense and defense and oh by the way there are other guys in there like K Wallace like Isaiah Joe who they extended this morning like Aaron Wiggins who they extended this morning who also fit under that label that is how you build an NBA team in 2024 under the new rules hembo and not based on having a big three yeah I think you’re right about that this is the best traditional thorough way to build an NBA Juggernaut and the Oklahoma City Thunder I think right now should be considered the favorite to win their conference they were the one C year ago and they were super young in order to pull it off the inputs if you will hartenstein and Caruso the outputs a 22-year-old unplayable Josh giddy to a team that already had the best record in their own conference he couldn’t shoot they could correct so at this juncture not only are they the most disruptive team in the NBA defensively you’re adding hartenstein who last year had 87 Steals and 85 blocks Alex Caruso we know is a major defensive asset multi-positional versatility from that standpoint but you’ve got your 30 points per game score and Shay gilis Alexander who I think you might consider the front runner to win the MVP next year that’s exactly how you do it that is exactly the ideal methodology for building a championship team because any one of those guys any two of those guys aside from sgaa of course could get injured and you could survive you could have all sorts of different clever rotations and be able to play eight or nine people competently in a playoff context if you had had hartenstein if you had had Caruso they’re probably beating Dallas in the conference semis right now I’d say they’re the favorite to win the conference and there’s more that’s the other part of this they have tons of draft picks and other first round type picks that I haven’t even mentioned because the ma the masses don’t even know some of these names but they definitively don’t know others but these are guys that were drafted in the first round they didn’t give up any assets at all and I I’m pretty sure they may have a couple of extra bucks left they still have Paul George assets remaining it’s remark it’s remarkable what they have put together here and they are built not exactly the same way as the Celtics but similarly in that we cannot have any negatives everyone has to be at least neutral or a plus at every part of their game they don’t have to be Michael Jordan but they can’t be someone that cannot defend or cannot shoot it’s a point well made when you look at the landscape of the Celtics if you can have five neutrals or positives on defense all of a sudden you can be awesome especially with all that switchability and the Celtics case what Joe moula preaches is let’s have as much perimeter shooting as possible and you mentioned it it’s the one thing that they didn’t really have against Dallas in that series and Alex Caruso should go a long way in helping them improve that that’s what I love about Sam pry they they demonstrated we have these needs in that playoff series and they go and signing and trading for two players that can immediately address those needs that’s a really really good position to be in that’s a 55 or 60 win team next season would you take them over every team in the west right now I would take them and I know they were the on SE last year I’m saying it get to the final in in a playoff context I would take them over any team in the west right now including Denver who I think a lot of people think are coming back but they’ve lost so much in that kind of depth like there aren’t going to be many minutes in which there are obvious liabilities on the court there aren’t going to be those let’s attack Josh giddy minutes who exactly are you attacking on defense who exactly are you sagging off of on offense you don’t provide your opponent many easy answers and that changes the math for a lot of teams and their and their coordinators of course I wonder if Stein actually starts for them or does he come off the bench for them because if he starts then who comes out of the starting lineup maybe they just put Caruso on the bench I don’t think he’s going to mind a bench they have optionality in terms of their starting lineup because they have six guys for five spots right six guys that absolutely deserve to be starters if you’re thinking about har and Shino they just gave a $87 million deal too he’s probably starting Chad Homen was the number two pick in the draft he’ll be a top 25 player by this time next year that’s a bold statement okay think it’s outrageous uh Jaylen Williams who I think may end up being the best player on this team at some point in terms of of winning a a guy that his size at his position I I shouldn’t say best player I think he he is very much going to become a co-star with sgaa if I had to bet he reminds me a lot of Kawai okay well that’s a good comp when he’s healthy SGA and then Caruso six guys who absolutely theoretically could start they’re stacked they could also just ride it based on the game oh we’re playing Denver we’re going to start the two bigs they’re stacked you know we’re playing Minnesota we’re starting the two bigs we’re playing the Lakers if ad’s playing Center we’ll start the small like maybe they ride it that way yeah that’s the thing they can just they have they’ll have more answers than you like every like matchup every series they’re just going to have more answers so as we sit here today it’s Oklahoma City and Boston in the finals that those would be my my favorites right now at ESPN bet Denver is still the favorite to win the West followed by OKC and then Minnesota but I think OKC is the best team they’re the deepest team they’re a younger team they’ve got all those legs they’ve got excellent coaching they got a front office that has more assets than God that’s the best team I got to think God has more assets you know God has only made up of first rounders I’m pretty qualified to opine on this well I’m just saying you think God has second rounders in the chamber I think God only has first rounders God has the number one pick in the draft for the next for eternity second rounders are only so valuable you think God ever trades down yeah yeah I got the number one pick I think he does that every once in a while okay coming up a messy breakup by the bay is that one of us no uh greeny on ESPN Radio in the ESPN app temps are heating up and so are the ticket deals this summer with Vivid Seats whether it’s scoring tickets for a night out of the ballpark or witnessing the rising stars of women’s basketball Vivid Seats as excuse me until now their Center Isaiah hartstein agrees to a three-year $87 million deal with the Thunder here’s the thing there was going to have to be a Sacrifice by making a deal like they made for Mel Bridges they’re still probably going to adjust that deal to free up a little bit more room by including someone else in that deal I do not think they will necessarily include although they could Oklahoma City in that deal to make it a three- team deal and sending hartstein there um if they do that that would have to be a sign in trade which would hard cap Oklahoma City which there’s no reason for them to do that considering they have um cap space the Knicks are going to be searching on the backup big Market unless they feel the need to go and maybe trade Mitchell Robinson as well and start from scratch in that spot I would not advise that but Mitchell Robinson you are now going to be relying very much on his health and trying to find someone else to pair with him before we get into the eminently exciting backup big conversation this might sound like a stupid question but if you had told if I had told you say a week ago that you’d only have the chance to keep either OG an anobi or Isaiah hartenstein is there a brainer that you choose for me I would choose OG okay and I think that’s probably the consensus answer too right I mean given the fact that they paid OG all that money he’s a more valuable player more additive piece all the things right yeah because this is cocky but I found hartenstein once why can’t I find hartenstein again that’s it’s cocky but it’s accurate here here’s my point I can’t find what OG did when healthy right but when healthy is important for him because there’s 114 dnps in the last four years so take that for whatever it’s worth I just think that in a playoff context you do need the big in the regular season you don’t really need the big in the playoffs especially if you wind up facing the Sixers you very likely need the bigs and he was so good for them last year that I this is where I disagree though Boston’s the best team Boston’s the best team if Al Horford is playing Center for Boston I can play OG and anobi at Center at 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“Thunder are becoming a true title contender.” – Greeny reacts to OKC signing Isaiah Hartenstein