{"id":2013806,"date":"2026-06-27T03:49:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2013806"},"modified":"2026-06-27T03:49:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T00:49:48","slug":"isaiah-hartenstein-thunder-agree-on-3-year-contract-extension-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2013806","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Hartenstein, Thunder agree on 3-year contract extension: Source"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>Center Isaiah Hartenstein intends to sign a three-year, $75 million contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a league source confirmed to<em> The Athletic.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Approaching his third season with the organization, Hartenstein has become a fixture in Oklahoma City\u2019s rotation. Over the past two seasons, he started 97 of his 104 regular-season appearances, as well as all 23 games in the Thunder\u2019s run to a 2025 NBA championship. He averaged 9.2 points and 9.4 rebounds this past season, furthering his role beside fellow big man Chet Holmgren.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7357990\/2026\/06\/16\/nba-free-agents-lebron-james-harden-jalen-duren\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The No. 4 free agent in John Hollinger\u2019s rankings<\/a>, Hartenstein originally had a $28.5 million team option for next season, the third of a three-year free-agent contract he signed in 2024. Oklahoma City will instead sign him at a similar annual rate for next season and add two more years to his deal, tying him to the franchise through the 2028-29 season.<\/p>\n<div id=\"top-league-content-root\"><\/div>\n<p>    {&#8220;endpoint&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql&#8221;}<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder have been active this offseason to create more financial flexibility to fit Hartenstein into their cap sheet. In the past week, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7382061\/2026\/06\/21\/aaron-wiggins-traded-thunder-hawks\/\">traded guards Aaron Wiggins<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7397918\/2026\/06\/26\/isaiah-joe-trade-pistons-thunder\/\">Isaiah Joe<\/a> to the Atlanta Hawks and Detroit Pistons, respectively, shedding their contracts to try to duck under the NBA\u2019s punitive second-apron threshold.<\/p>\n<p>Hartenstein has played a large role in the Thunder\u2019s league-best defense the past couple of seasons. At 7-foot and 250 pounds, his sturdiness and below-the-rim physicality proved especially useful when defending Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"SG95tdIxotralhl\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">Hartenstein gave OKC a Wemby answer<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">Dave DuFour, Andrew Schlecht and more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">{&#8220;@context&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,&#8221;@type&#8221;:&#8221;VideoObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/SG95tdIxotralhl\/&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/SG95tdIxotralhl\/&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Hartenstein gave OKC a Wemby answer&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Andrew Schlecht, Dave DuFour and Jared Weiss discuss the Hartenstein adjustment. &#8220;,&#8221;uploadDate&#8221;:&#8221;2026-05-21T20:17:31.685Z&#8221;,&#8221;duration&#8221;:&#8221;PT38S&#8221;,&#8221;thumbnailUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/SG95tdIxotralhl\/VeakwP9elESm.0000000.jpg&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/SG95tdIxotralhl\/VeakwP9elESm\/VeakwP9elESm.m3u8&#8243;,&#8221;transcript&#8221;:&#8221;Thunder win. They made some adjustments on the court. The biggest change was Isaiah Hartenstein. He played a significant role. You walked away from game one thinking, oh, the Thunder don&#8217;t think they can play Hartenstein when Wimby&#8217;s on the court. 20, they think that they should maybe only play Hardenstein when he&#8217;s on the court. That was my takeaway. I&#8217;m gonna give the credit to, to Hardenstein. He was just relentless on the glass. He had those 8 offensive rebounds. The big thing was his box out technique on both ends, really. He just was able to move Wambayama. He&#8217;s huge and has a low center of gravity. He can get like really up and solid on Wemby and high enough on Wemby&#8217;s body that he can prevent Wemby from like really reaching over. That&#8217;s how they won the game.&#8221;,&#8221;ineligibleRegion&#8221;:[&#8220;BI&#8221;,&#8221;BY&#8221;,&#8221;CD&#8221;,&#8221;CF&#8221;,&#8221;CU&#8221;,&#8221;IQ&#8221;,&#8221;IR&#8221;,&#8221;KP&#8221;,&#8221;LB&#8221;,&#8221;LY&#8221;,&#8221;ML&#8221;,&#8221;NI&#8221;,&#8221;RU&#8221;,&#8221;SD&#8221;,&#8221;SO&#8221;,&#8221;SS&#8221;,&#8221;SY&#8221;,&#8221;UA&#8221;,&#8221;VE&#8221;,&#8221;YE&#8221;,&#8221;ZW&#8221;],&#8221;publisher&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;NewsMediaOrganization&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/&#8221;,&#8221;foundingDate&#8221;:&#8221;2016-01-25&#8243;,&#8221;logo&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;ImageObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;creditText&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;60&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;435&#8243;},&#8221;publishingPrinciples&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/&#8221;,&#8221;sameAs&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic&#8221;},&#8221;author&#8221;:[{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;Person&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Dave DuFour, Andrew Schlecht and more&#8221;}]}<\/p>\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"none\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hartenstein\u2019s passing and screening have helped transform the Thunder offense and introduced new wrinkles built around his playmaking from the high post. He has also given back-to-back MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a bruising screener.<\/p>\n<p>A 2017 second-round pick, the 28-year-old opened his career bouncing between four teams in four seasons \u2014 the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Cleveland Cavaliers and the LA Clippers \u2014 while starting just six games in that span. He signed with the New York Knicks in 2022 and became integral in their rise over the next two seasons. With his combination of rebounding, rim protection, physicality and playmaking, Hartenstein became a coveted target during the summer of 2024. He, along with Alex Caruso, became one of the Thunder\u2019s two marquee veteran acquisitions before their title run.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Center Isaiah Hartenstein intends to sign a three-year, $75 million contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.\u00a0 Approaching his third season with the organization, Hartenstein has become a fixture in Oklahoma City\u2019s rotation. Over the past two seasons, he started 97 of his 104 regular-season appearances, as well [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2013806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2013806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2013806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2013806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2013806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}