Why Knicks are facing an uphill battle to keep Isaiah Hartenstein in NBA free agency

Isaiah Hartenstein became a New York Knick in part due to a quirk in the collective bargaining agreement. Let’s wind the clock back three years. Hartenstein, then a journeyman having spent stints with the Rockets, Nuggets and Cavaliers, couldn’t find a contract with another NBA team until weeks before 2021 training camp began. Eventually, he ultimately signed with the Los Angeles Clippers.

His lone season in Hollywood was a breakout success. Though his individual numbers didn’t jump off of the page, Hartenstein developed into one of the NBA’s most effective low-minutes rim-protectors backing up Ivica Zubac. In a perfect world, the Clippers would have re-signed him and kept him in that role indefinitely. 

The problem was that he had so little value around the league before he signed in Los Angeles that he could only get a one-year deal from the Clippers when he joined them. That meant that as a 2022 free agent, his original team only had Non-Bird Rights on him, allowing only a 20% raise on his minimum salary. He obviously wasn’t going to take that. Their only other means of paying him something resembling fair value would have been their taxpayer mid-level exception. They instead spent it on John Wall, opening the door for the Knicks to give him their own mid-level exception.

Now, history is repeating itself. Hartenstein has been a revelation for the Knicks. That incredible rim-protection has carried over to New York, but has sustained in a larger role. His rebounding, especially on offense, has become an essential part of the Knicks’ identity. Throw in his floaters, screening and passing and he’s become a significant offensive positive in addition to that great defense. The Knicks, like the Clippers before them, snagged a major free-agent bargain in Hartenstein.

And the Knicks, like the Clippers before them, are facing a major uphill battle in actually keeping him, and the reason for that again traces back to his value around the league at the time of his last foray into free agency. If Hartenstein had the leverage to command a…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/why-knicks-are-facing-an-uphill-battle-to-keep-isaiah-hartenstein-in-nba-free-agency/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-05-20 15:39:27

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