{"id":111707,"date":"2024-12-11T14:15:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T19:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=111707"},"modified":"2024-12-11T14:15:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T19:15:41","slug":"should-hartenstein-remain-a-starter-once-holmgren-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/11\/should-hartenstein-remain-a-starter-once-holmgren-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Hartenstein Remain a Starter Once Holmgren Returns?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Thunder signed<\/a> Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> in the offseason, everyone wondered if he would be a starter next to Chet Holmgren<\/a>. Especially after he was signed to a huge 3-year $87-dollar contract, which made him the second-highest-paid player on the roster after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a>. In the preseason, we got to see a glimpse of how impactful this pair can be playing together. However, Hartenstein suffered an injury<\/a> that caused him to miss the beginning of the season. This left the Thunder with Holmgren as their only healthy center. Thunder fans were going to have to wait a little longer to see if they would be full-time starters together.<\/p>\n

The Thunder started the year going 8-1 with Holmgren, and Hartenstein’s return was right around the corner. Unfortunately, Holmgren suffered a major injury<\/a> and isn’t expected to return until late January or early February. A couple of games later, Hartenstein finally made his Thunder debut, and they haven’t looked back. Since Hartenstein came back, the Thunder<\/a> are 8-1. The Thunder are 16-2 whenever Hartenstein or Holmgren play and are 3-3 without them. The Thunder have been changing their lineups every game depending on who they are playing that day. Today, we will examine the benefits and negatives of Hartenstein remaining a starter once Holmgren returns from injury and what the Thunder should decide.<\/p>\n

Should Hartenstein Remain a Starter Once Holmgren Returns?<\/h2>\n

The Benefits of Having Two Bigs Start<\/h3>\n

There are plenty of benefits to having two bigs start in today’s NBA. However, for it to work, one must be able to stretch the floor. The Thunder have that with Chet Holmgren, as he shot 37.8% from three before his injury. If Holmgren and Hartenstein start together, most of their benefits would be felt on the defensive end. Having two rim protectors on the court at the same time will cause problems for the opposing teams to score in the paint. In addition, this also allows the Thunder to have Holmgren be a roaming defender and make it easier for him to block shots and help out when needed.<\/p>\n

Holmgren is averaging 8.7 rebounds per game, and Hartenstein is averaging 12.8 rebounds. If they are on the court together, that would limit the opposing team’s second-chance point opportunities. If you pair that with how many turnovers and steals they cause, it would almost be impossible to score consistently on this defense. On the offensive side, they could create a lot of mismatches together, with Holmgren and Hartenstein running a two-man game. In addition, they would also have the luxury of being able to extend possessions with two seven-footers going for an offensive rebound. These are just some of the many benefits of starting them together. Hartenstein and Holmgren complement each other well by covering up each other’s weaknesses and playing on their strengths.<\/p>\n

The Negatives of Having Two Bigs Start<\/h3>\n

However, on the flip side, there are also negatives to having them start together. Hartenstein and Holmgren starting together limit minutes for their guards and wings. It would cause guys like Isaiah Joe<\/a>, Aaron Wiggins<\/a>, Cason Wallace<\/a>, and Alex Caruso<\/a> to play fewer minutes. One of the main reasons why they force so many turnovers and get steals is because of these guys. Limiting their minutes to have Hartenstein and Holmgren start might hurt their ability to force turnovers and get steals. Another area of weakness is it allows the opposing team to create easier mismatches. One of the best things about this team is they don’t have someone you can hunt on defense consistently, thinking you have the advantage. However, with two centers on the court together, that makes it a lot easier to create mismatches.<\/p>\n

Finally, the last negative is always having a fresh rim protector in the game at all times. This is something the Mavericks do so well with Daniel Gafford<\/a> and Dereck Lively II<\/a>. They rotate them in and out, so they always have fresh legs in at center for the full 48-minute game. If Hartenstein and Holmgren start, this is a luxury the Thunder may not be able to have. However, if you have Hartenstein come off the bench, it will allow the Thunder to do the same thing the Mavericks do with their two centers. This way, the Thunder will always have a rim protector on the court for the whole game, and it won’t affect their ability to play them together in stretches.<\/p>\n

The Last Word on Hartenstein Remaining a Starter<\/h3>\n

There are plenty of pros and cons for Hartenstein and Holmgren starting together. It will be very interesting to see what Mark Daigneault and the company decide to do. With that being said, we think the best thing for the Thunder to do is to continue having a matchup-dependent starting five. This means that in some games, they might start together, and in some games, Hartenstein will come off the bench, allowing the Thunder to get the best of both worlds while not compromising their strengths or causing different weaknesses that weren’t there previously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Thunder signed Isaiah Hartenstein in the offseason, everyone wondered if he would be a starter next to Chet Holmgren. Especially after he was signed to a huge 3-year $87-dollar contract, which made him the second-highest-paid player on the roster after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In the preseason, we got to see a glimpse of how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5171,"featured_media":111728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,22],"tags":[4292,993,1489],"class_list":["post-111707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-thunder","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111729,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111707\/revisions\/111729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}