Clean brought this up in Laker's Gamethread. Fred's take.
Should Knicks start Isaiah Hartenstein at center or stay with Jericho Sims?
Fred Katz
LOS ANGELES — Isaiah Hartenstein was not hurt. He wasn’t injured. But if you saw only his legs, you’d have thought he was just mauled.
Hartenstein sat at his locker following the New York Knicks’ impressive 114-109 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday. The center had just clawed for a career-best 17 rebounds. They didn’t come easy. And he had the wounds to prove it.
As Hartenstein took off his shoes, he showed off red blotches, from thigh to ankle, on the white leggings he wears under his uniform.
“Is that blood?” I asked him, shocked by a man scratched up as if the dog that famously sat courtside at Crypto.com Arena came after him.
“No,” Hartenstein barbed with a smile. “I s— my pants.”
Such is life for Hartenstein these days when battling down low with stars like Anthony Davis and LeBron James brings about a sentiment that usually doesn’t come to mind: Thankfully those giant stains are only blood.
The Knicks have never before relied on Hartenstein this much. Ankle surgery for Mitchell Robinson, which will keep him out until at least February, has thrust the 25-year-old into the forefront of the team’s rotation, even if he’s not yet starting games. Robinson isn’t just the Knicks’ top defender. He’s also the personification of their identity: that scrappy, shut-down-the-paint defensive mentality that they’ve paired with relentless rebounding.
Now, it’s Hartenstein’s job to fill in a Robinson-sized gap. And Monday’s was his best showing.
He went for nine points and 17 boards, topping a career high he set only a week and a half ago. He helped lock down the paint, which the Knicks needed, considering how porous the defense had been over the previous six games, which included the two most recent ones in which Robinson played.
“I said this to you guys early on. He definitely deserved more minutes than he was getting at the start,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And that’s the thing with this team is we have a lot of guys that are deserving of more minutes and it’s hard because we have a lot of good players.”
Now, Robinson is no longer blocking Hartenstein, who is capitalizing on the opportunity. Seven of his boards against the Lakers were offensive. For as dominant of an offensive rebounder as Robinson is, Hartenstein is right behind him. He is fifth in the NBA in offensive rebound percentage this season, four spots behind his buddy, Robinson.
“The more he goes, the more he gets. And he’s gotten a lot stronger,” Thibodeau said. “And I think he’s healthy. I think it’s sort of slowing down for him now. He’s been around. He’s crafty.”
Hartenstein ran for 39 minutes against the Lakers. And if Thibodeau plans to play him so much, a question arises: Should the Knicks finally start him?
Jericho Sims, who was previously out of the rotation, has started the five games since Robinson went down. The logic is that Hartenstein remaining a reserve allows him to play with the second unit, even if he’s been closing games and playing more minutes than Sims. Hartenstein’s passing abilities are essential for a bench lineup that likes to play fast. There’s another part of it, too: Bringing Hartenstein off the bench can help keep him out of foul trouble.
But placing Sims, who sprained his ankle in the Lakers game and is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s crosstown match with the Brooklyn Nets, into the first unit also means that a usual third-stringer has to face starters — sometimes All-Stars. And the Knicks are suffering the repercussions of that.
Hartenstein’s stellar play has stood out, and it’s not just because he’s proven himself as one of the league’s best backup centers. It’s also because of what’s happening when he’s not in the game.
There was one more reason why Thibodeau dubbed Sims the starter instead of Hartenstein. The Knicks strategized similarly last winter when Robinson missed a month and Sims leapfrogged Hartenstein to enter the first unit. The Knicks went 8-6 during that stretch.
“I look at the winning,” Thibodeau said.
Of course, it’s not like New York won those games because of its starting lineup. How the Knicks performed when Sims ran with the starters last season should have led to concern about how it might go this time.
In the 303 minutes that he played alongside Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett in 2022-23, the Knicks got decimated by 13.7 points per 100 possessions. When presented with those numbers, Thibodeau deviated from his usual philosophy.
The coach has said numerous times in the past that point differential per 100 possessions is the “most important” stat. But in this instance, he repeated the same line.
“I look at the winning,” he said again.
In Sims’ five starts this season, the same trend is occurring. The Knicks are 3-2, which includes a couple of formidable wins on the road against the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns. And yet, the positive record is not because of how the starting five is gelling. It’s because Brunson just so happened to not miss a shot for an entire half against Phoenix, Randle wrecked the Lakers in the paint, Quickley can catch fire and Hartenstein has filled in the gaps.
Sims has played 62 minutes with Brunson, Barrett and Randle so far this season. The Knicks are minus-24 in that time. Meanwhile, the defense is getting torn apart like it’s a 7-footer’s legs.
The defense has been a problem for the past two weeks — though the Knicks cleaned up many of the flaws against the Lakers when they stopped mailing out invitations for parties in the paint. But with Robinson out, the group’s margin for error shrinks. A few minutes of devastation could be the difference between a win and a loss.
So the question becomes, how much longer can the current starting five dig holes only for other lineups to save them?
Sims, who isn’t Robinson’s or Hartenstein’s size, has struggled against brawny starting centers. The Suns’ Jusuf Nurkić pushed him around Friday. The Clippers’ Ivica Zubac did the same in the opening minutes of Saturday’s game, enough so that Thibodeau pulled Sims only four minutes into the first quarter. Hartenstein played the final 20 minutes of the half.
Hartenstein emerged even earlier in the Lakers game two nights later, subbing in only three-and-a-half minutes after tipoff because Sims picked up a second foul. Thibodeau gave Hartenstein a quick spell — a minute and a half on the bench with the most-seasoned newcomer in Knicks history, Taj Gibson, playing center. But otherwise, Hartenstein just kept running. And it worked.
“To be in that situation where I can be in that role, (it’s) something I’ve always wanted,” he said. “You’re going to be tired playing 40 minutes regardless. But yeah, I’ve got a million scratches. It was physical. But that’s what I’m ready for, that’s what I train my body for in the summer, to be prepared for that.”
Certainly, this is not the first instance in NBA history of a coach bringing a big man off the bench because it could limit his fouls. But using someone for 20 consecutive minutes also is a great way to get him into foul trouble, considering a tired player is more likely to reach in or close out sloppily or mess up a contest at the rim.
If Sims doesn’t play Wednesday, then the decision about who starts becomes easier for Thibodeau. With Sims hurt, Hartenstein began the second half against the Lakers.
Going small doesn’t seem to be an option. Thibodeau prefers to play with a big man on the floor at all times, a hankering that stood out in the Lakers game, when he used the 38-year-old Gibson, who was out of the league only a few days ago, against a center-less Lakers lineup.
A move to the second unit could make Sims look better, too.
For example, take the Clippers game. Sims’ greatest defensive trait is his foot speed, not his sheer power. Had Hartenstein started on that night, he could have bruised with the more physical Zubac only for Sims to man the more slender and perimeter-oriented Daniel Theis.
Of course, if Hartenstein spends even more time facing starters, he may turn into one giant scrape. But at least those stains will just be blood.
“It’s something I’ve always been working to — everyone in this building has been working to,” Hartenstein said. “I didn’t want it in the way I’ve been getting it. I didn’t want Mitch to go out. That’s my man. He texts me after every game, so I miss him. I just have to hold it down for him and so just keep proving that I can be in this role, too.”
12/20/2023 12:07 PM