Hartenstein & OKC: NBA Record Pursuit

It’s going pretty well almost every night right now, but not as good as it was six weeks ago in Sacramento. That was simply his game, Isiah Hartenstein later told American journalists: 33 points, a new record, plus an incredible nineteen rebounds. He was the standout man that night for the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team in which many have the makings of an All-Star. Which is why he didn’t simply forget his teammates. The proceeds go “to the credit of my teammates, who always found me,” he said. They had persistently fed him useful templates.

The fact that the attacking performance shapes the profile of an NBA professional is one of the distorted images of a sport in which something completely different is required on average every 20 seconds: blocking attackers’ paths in a quick reaction. Always be on the move with one eye to protect your own basket and collect rebounds. And invest the rest of the energy in unselfish activities, which in basketball terms is often called “help defense”. This includes doubling strong opponents.

At least that’s what the statistics nerds from the wide-reaching “Bball Index” take into account. At the beginning of December, after a quarter of the season, they ranked Hartenstein as the fifth-best NBA defender in their most recent analysis, which incorporated a wealth of detailed data. The 2.13 meter long center is undoubtedly one of the decisive factors in a team that is heading towards an ambitious goal for the season: to surpass the Golden State Warriors’ old record from the winter of 2015-16. They had won 73 of their 82 meetings, but failed in the final series 3-4 to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ten years later, things aren’t going perfectly for Oklahoma City either. On Saturday, for example, they suffered their second defeat in their 26th game with a 109:111 win against the San Antonio Spurs. However, the Thunder players did not arrogantly push the result aside. “We can fly home and be content with that,” said Jalen Williams afterwards, who at 24 is already one of the veterans in the second-youngest championship team in league history (average age last season was 25.6, currently just 24.5). “Or we can learn something from this to become even better and understand that we were beaten by a playoff team.” Something that will have to be dealt with intensively in the coming weeks and months, perhaps even years.

The Spurs, who are also young and have the outstanding Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, are currently in fourth place in the table in the Western Conference. In the near future, it will be the only opponent with serious ambitions that the Thunder will face: On the way to the goal of the best regular season in history, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies, none of which are among the top teams in the league, are waiting before they face the Spurs again at Christmas. The opponent will not bring any gifts. And he will do his best to prevent Oklahoma City from achieving what the Golden State Warriors last achieved in the NBA in 2017 and 2018 – a second championship in a row.

But if recent headlines in America are to be believed, teams trying to thwart this plan are only a minor player. The basketball players on the team, put together almost clairvoyantly by general manager Sam Presti, “play in a league of their own” (Sports Illustrated). They are “the most dominant team” (New York Times). And that despite the fact that Jalen Williams, the second best man in the squad after Gilgeous-Alexander, was missing in half of the previous matches due to a wrist injury and Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso were also out at times. Everything was nothing more than a challenge for coach Mark Daignault, who more than once voluntarily increased the pressure on the bench players and simply took Gilgeous-Alexander out in the fourth period. Which surprisingly doesn’t affect the Canadian’s stats at all. He is by far the Thunder’s best scorer – with 32.4 points per game.

Elsewhere, such experiments are likely to cause irritation (and a drop in performance). Things are different in Oklahoma City. “Ego doesn’t play the slightest role,” is how Hartenstein described the role model character of his captain of the same age after the Sacramento game. “He’s very easy to follow. He works hard. For him, team spirit comes first. You don’t see that with too many superstars.” The man with number 55 can now judge this quite well. Before moving to the provinces, he got to know the inner workings of big city teams in Houston, Denver, Cleveland, Los Angeles and New York, where some top earners eventually develop airs.

When it comes to the future, Oklahoma is also better positioned than many other NBA locations. Due to a far-sighted player acquisition and the associated trades with other NBA franchises, manager Sam Presti has a lot of opportunities to add young talent in upcoming youth drafts and to continue tinkering with the squad. It has become quite expensive in recent years and may soon make it necessary to part with some of the higher-earning players. A fate that could also befall Hartenstein, who can only play for OKC again next winter if Presti decides to pay him the $28.5 million (around 23 million euros) then due. Hartenstein “sometimes can’t even imagine playing anywhere else.” But the thought of a change cannot be completely suppressed. Or just with a lot of confidence: “If we just keep winning, the team will be able to stay together.”

How long? There are indications of a prosperous future. The most striking evidence will soon be created directly opposite the hall, under whose ceiling the first championship banner has been hanging since October: the new, larger arena will ensure further revenue growth. The move is planned for the start of the 2028/29 season.