The playoffs often provide a litmus test, for teams’ respective roster constructions, for a coach’s mettle on the sidelines, for an impending free agent’s upcoming value on the offseason market.
There may be no individual who’s postseason benefited his wallet more than New York center Isaiah Hartenstein, the 26-year-old who claimed the Knicks’ starting job after his close friend, Mitchell Robinson, was sidelined by an ailing ankle.
Hartenstein never relinquished the role through New York’s run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference second round.
That frontcourt combination was critical in battling against Joel Embiid to help New York outlast Philadelphia in six games in the opening round.
“They went through a lot to go up against him every possession,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said.
“Knowing what [Embiid’s] capable of, knowing that he knows how to play the game, knows how to get fouled, knows how to get points.
The things they were able to do night in and night out … they kept fighting.”
For his part, Hartenstein will now reach unrestricted free agency as arguably the best big man available, finishing 2023-24 shooting 64.4% from the field, thanks to a weaponized floater, plus a career-best 8.3 rebounds in 25.3 minutes and continued flashes of a deep passing gene that created 4.3 assists each outing against Indianapolis in Round 2.
A massive payday is surely looming and should produce a marked leap from just two years ago, when Hartenstein entered the offseason as one of the more coveted reserve centers on the board.
