{"id":72052,"date":"2024-04-05T16:07:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=72052"},"modified":"2024-04-05T16:07:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T20:07:58","slug":"knicks-isaiah-hartenstein-open-about-possibility-re-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/05\/knicks-isaiah-hartenstein-open-about-possibility-re-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks Impending Free Agent Open About Possibility of Re-Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a> is having a career year.<\/p>\n

Posting 7.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 24.9 minutes per game \u2014averages that all match or exceed his previous career-highs \u2014Hartenstein\u2019s become one of the Knicks\u2019 key cogs. Indeed, the Afro-German has even started a career-high 44 games for New York this season due to Mitchell Robinson<\/a>\u00a0and Jericho Sims<\/a>\u2019 early season injuries. In those contests, Hartenstein is averaging 8.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game.<\/p>\n

Isaiah Hartenstein Open About Possibility of Re-Signing with Knicks<\/h2>\n

A lanky two-way playmaker at 7-foot-0 and 250 pounds, Hartenstein\u2019s caught a rhythm with the first unit.<\/p>\n

As a result, he\u2019s unlikely to give up his role to Robinson or Sims, who have since recovered. That could change in the offseason as Robinson started in all but 13 games from the 2020-21 to 2022-23 season. Statistically, Robinson is the second-best shot-blocker<\/a> in Knicks history. Nonetheless, teams are often unwilling to move away from a winning formula, and Hartenstein\u2019s an unexpected but significant variable<\/a> in that equation.<\/p>\n

With that said, the matter of Hartenstein\u2019s impending free agent decision is of much import.<\/p>\n

Having signed a two-year, $16 million contract<\/a> with the Knicks last offseason, the 25-year-old is on an expiring contract. New York will have Hartenstein\u2019s Early Bird Rights<\/a>, so they can sign him to 175 percent of his current salary regardless of their cap situation<\/a>. For Hartenstein, who earns a base salary of $8.2 million this season, this could lead to a contract with an annual value of $14.4 million.<\/p>\n

To that point, multiple NBA executives believe Hartenstein \u201ccould command around $13 million a year<\/a> in free agency this summer,\u201d HoopsHype inside Michael Scotto. Scotto adds that this number is \u201croughly the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

Might there be a bidding war for the former second-round pick?<\/p>\n

All Else Equal<\/h3>\n

In an interview with Scotto, Hartenstein addressed his upcoming free agency, saying \u201cI\u2019m focused on what I\u2019m doing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019ve put myself in a great position to get a little upgrade,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m focused on the Knicks,\u201d Hartenstein continues. \u201cI love it here, and hopefully, we\u2019ll figure something out, but at the end of the day, business is business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed by Scotto on his desire to return to the Knicks \u201cif money is equal,\u201d he drops the mic.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Hartenstein says.<\/p>\n

Considering that the Knicks can only play him a figure slightly above the full non-taxpayer\u2019s mid-level exception, this bodes well for New York\u2019s ability to retain his services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein is having a career year. Posting 7.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.1 blocks in 24.9 minutes per game \u2014averages that all match or exceed his previous career-highs \u2014Hartenstein\u2019s become one of the Knicks\u2019 key cogs. Indeed, the Afro-German has even started a career-high 44 games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":72061,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1608,62,3],"tags":[993,297,4557],"class_list":["post-72052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knicks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72052","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}