NBA free agency: Isaiah Hartenstein leaves Knicks for three-year, $87 million deal with Thunder, per report

Hartenstein had two great years with the Knicks

By Sam Quinn Jul 1, 2024 at 11:26 am ET• 2 min read

Isaiah Hartenstein will leave the New York Knicks to sign a three-year, $87 million deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Hartenstein signed with the Knicks on a two-year, $16 million contract as a free agent in 2022, and the deal proved to be one of the best value contracts in the NBA. Hartenstein was one of the best reserves in the league during the 2022-23, playing all 82 games as the Knicks returned to the playoffs. He then replaced the injured Mitchell Robinson as the starter at center last season and helped the Knicks come within one game of the Eastern Conference finals.

However, the collective bargaining agreement created two significant barriers for the Knicks in re-signing Hartenstein. The first was their own fault. The Knicks signed Hartenstein for only two years in 2022. That meant, from the moment they got him, that they would be limited in their ability to re-sign him because he would only have Early Bird Rights as a 2024 free agent instead of full Bird Rights. Those Early Bird Rights allowed the Knicks to only offer him a 75% raise on his previous salary in a new deal, which amounted to a bit more than $16.1 million next season and $72.5 million over four years.

The Thunder's deal does not guarantee the third year and it is front-loaded, per the New York Post.

The Knicks then created another issue when they traded for Mikal Bridges before the NBA Draft. Doing so created a hard cap. As the trade is not finalized yet, the exact hard cap is not set, but it will either be at the first apron ($178.7 million) or second ($189.5 million). In either scenario, the Knicks would have to clear a bit of extra money to fit Hartenstein onto their new and improved roster.