New York Knicks 2023-24 Player Preview: Isaiah Hartenstein Expands the Interior
Autumn in New York ... from a basketball perspective, it's finally inviting.
The New York Knicks return to action on Wednesday night against the Boston Celtics (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) in a game that will officially open one of the more anticipated seasons in recent metropolitan memory. New York is coming off its most successful NBA season in a decade, winning 47 games and a playoff series for the first time since 2013.
With tip-off looming, All Knicks will analyze and preview what's to come for the major contributors on the blue-and-orange roster. Part VII goes to the paint, namely the backup center Isaiah Hartenstein ..
Player Profile
Name: Isaiah Hartenstein
Position: Center/Forward
Height/Weight: 7-0, 250 lbs.
Country: Germany
Experience: 6th season (2nd with Knicks)
Hartenstein (55) took on a larger role during the Knicks' post-All-Star break surge
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The Story So Far
The Knicks are mostly bereft of championship experience on their active roster. Even the one player with an NBA ring (Donte DiVincenzo) didn't get to partake in his own championship trek due to an injury.
Hartenstein, however, owns victory hardware from both domestic and international affairs: partly raised in Germany, the Oregon-born big man brought back a ring from Lithuania's premier basketball league when he originally entered the Association as a second round pick of Houston's. He later triumphed with his original employer's G League group in Rio Grande Valley, taking home the Finals MVP in a win over the Long Island Nets in 2019.
After a nomadic endeavor took him through Houston, Denver, and Cleveland, Hartenstein enjoyed a breakout campaign with the Los Angeles Clippers, posting the best defensive rating on the team (min. 50 games played) and averaging 8.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. He fell to the Knicks' grasp and slid in as one of the ironclad centers, along with Mitchell Robinson, in what eventually became Tom Thibodeau's nine-man rotation.
While it took Hartenstein a little while to regain the playmaker's spark he had in Los Angeles, he was the only Knick to appear in all 82 games. He was one of the Knicks' biggest difference-makers after the All-Star break, as he hauled in 6.4 boards a game and was even trusted to finish out games in the paint over Robinson.
They Said It
“It was a big loss, but also a big win. I just think when you get a guy like Hartenstein who bounced around a couple (of) teams, was a minimum player, and then he comes into our team and plays great all year long, gets a chance to make $8 million a year in New York, that’s a win for us as well. It just shows you that we’re able to take guys and bring the best out of their talent and who they are as a player, so I’m very happy for him.”-Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue on Hartenstein (h/t Tomer Azarly, ClutchPoints)
“It’s just more just adjusting to more of a different role, but I think as the year’s going on, it’s been getting better and better. I’m just trying to help the team win and I think I’ve been doing my job in that. Maybe it’s a little different than the role I thought, but I think I’ve still been doing a good job of just embracing it and doing whatever the team needs to win. That’s what I’m really about and so I think I’ve been helping in that.”-Hartenstein on his role in New York (h/t Tomer Azarly, ClutchPoints)
2023-24 Forecast
As the NBA continues to profess its faith in shooting antics in the perimeter and beyond the arc, the idea of a traditional center is becoming an endangered species. The Knicks have made do with one such talent in Robinson and Hartenstein seems to know that he'll be needed in other areas to push the Knicks forward.
Hartenstein is showing brief flashes of the player he was beyond the paint on the other side of the country. During the preseason, Hartenstein attempted seven triples (hitting two), perhaps in an audition for the role of Julius Randle spell option. Time will tell if that was a legitimate attempt to expand his game or the trigger-happy nature of the preseason, but Hartenstein did try a career-high 37 from deep last year, though he sank only eight after going 14-of-30 during his time in SoCal.
But with Obi Toppin gone, Hartenstein's more traditional skills could still rise to the occasion. Necessary as the trade for Toppin might've been for all sides, the Knicks are left quite undersized in terms of experienced talents, especially considering their one major import was the backcourt man DiVincenzo. Hartenstein took on a sizable workload in his metropolitan debut and it'd hardly be a surprise to see him work in his second tour.
