In a preseason with far more injury reports than we should see, the Oklahoma City Thunder are adding a big one to the pile.
Center Isaiah Hartenstein suffered what the team called a “minor, non-displaced fracture in his left hand,” which will be reevaluated in 5-6 weeks, the Thunder announced. The injury occurred during the Thunder’s preseason game against the Nuggets on Tuesday night.
This will have Hartenstein out for at least the first month of the season, likely a few weeks longer in December, meaning he will miss about the team’s first 20 games.
Hartenstein came to the Thunder this offseason on a three-year, $87 million contract. Last season with the Knicks he averaged 7.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, and was a key part of their late season run to the No. 2 seed, then reaching the second round, due to his presence inside and passing. skills that allowed him to be the center of the offense at points.
In OKC, Hartenstein was perfect in the five in the preseason, both playing next to Chet Holmgren in a two-man lineup and with other lineups as coach Mark Daigneault experiments to see what rotations work. This is a setback in terms of finding what rotations the Thunder want to lean on this season and for depth as the games start to pile up.
However, it shouldn’t slow the Thunder down much during the regular season. They will return to more of the five-outside lineups with Holmgren under center that earned the Thunder the No. 1 seed in the West last season. Hartenstein was a perfect fit, adding depth and, more importantly, helping with playoff contests against teams with traditional centers and size, such as Nikola Jokic in Denver.
Still, it’s a shame to see one of the biggest free-agent signings in Thunder history go down over the first month or so of the season. The Thunder already had Jaylin Williams (hamstring) and Kenrich Williams (knee) sidelined this preseason.
