Isaiah Hartenstein is a top target for the Los Angeles Lakers this offseason, but that is only if he's available. For him to be a free agent, the Thunder will need to decline his team option. As Marc Stein said on the ALL NBA Podcast, that could happen, but not to make the center available to other teams.
"I don't see them losing Hartenstein because of the playoff struggles that Holmgren just had. He's got a team option, and history says that if you watch the way the Thunder do it, is the team going to decline the option and sign him to a longer-term deal at a lesser number?"
Hartenstein's option for next season is worth $28.5 million. Fans of teams that hoped he'd hit the market, like the Lakers, wondered if the Thunder would decline it to free up cap space. Or if they'd pick it up, and then trade him.
Technically speaking, either one of those possibilities could still happen. After watching Chet struggle against Wembanyama in the playoffs, though, the Thunder have more of a reason to bring Hartenstein back. If he is willing to take a pay cut in favor of a long-term deal, he could be back in OKC next season.
Thunder could decline Hartenstein's option to sign him to new deal
Hartenstein was a top free agent in 2024, after he stepped up for the Knicks as their starting center when Mitchell Robinson got hurt. New York wanted to keep him, but couldn't afford to, paving the way for his three-year, $87 million deal with Oklahoma City.
In his first season with the Thunder, they won a championship, coming up one win short of returning to the NBA Finals for the second straight year. Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs got in their way, but OKC is still very much a team capable of making another championship run.
Hartenstein knows that, giving him even more incentive to stay where he is, and that could be enough for him to sign a new contract at a lesser number.
Getting Hartenstein was already a stretch for the Lakers because of his contract situation, and Holmgren made it even less likely because of his reluctance to do really anything at all against Wembanyama. Keeping I-Hart is far more than an insurance move for OKC, but it can't afford to lose him, especially not to a team like the Lakers.
Until it becomes official that he will stay with the Thunder, assuming that will happen in the manner in which Stein predicted, you can still keep dreaming. The Lakers do have a knack for getting lucky, after all, and Hartenstein would be a perfect fit.
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