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Shifting to contender status, the Oklahoma City Thunder knocked it out of the park with their two big offseason additions from 2024. Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein provided some veteran experience to the youngest first-seed in NBA history.
As two of the Thunder’s seven best players, Caruso and Hartenstein had their moments in a playoff run that finished with an NBA championship. Caruso stepped up after a modest campaign. He scored more 20-point games in the playoffs than in the regular season. He also shut down Nikola Jokic in a Game 7 win.
Meanwhile, the Thunder leaned on Hartenstein as their starting center for most of the playoffs. Paired with Chet Holmgren, the double-big lineup found more success in the postseason than regular season.
After winning his first ring, Sam Presti reflected on his 2024 offseason additions that turned out to be important pieces to the Thunder’s first championship run. He said in his 2024-25 end-of-season press conference that the title winner finally enjoyed some good luck for once after being on the wrong side of it for years.
“I think we got super lucky with the fact that both of those players were accessible to us. That’s not the luck. The luck is their personalities were so well-suited for our particular team at this particular time, and we got both of them,” Presti said. “I don’t know that that will ever happen, where we can find two elite role players that love being role players and are really tailor-made for our program and organization. Start the good fortune there.”
The Thunder made the best of two bad situations to add Caruso and Hartenstein. Josh Giddey didn’t want to come off the bench and requested a trade. That definitely hurt OKC’s pride. He was the first major draft pick of the rebuild and didn’t work out after three seasons.
OK. It happens. They turned Giddey into Caruso in a rare one-for-one swap. The 31-year-old was a better fit for the Thunder’s goals. Meanwhile, the Gordon Hayward addition fell flat on its face. He should’ve been a veteran wing who could’ve helped a young squad in the playoffs. Instead, he became unplayable.
You use his expiring $30 million salary and turn it into Hartenstein, fresh off a career season with the New York Knicks. In one year, it’s already a massive success. He helped the Thunder go a historic 68-14 in the regular season and eventually win their first title.
They’ve exceeded expectations. I will say, just I’ve got to say this, I haven’t seen a player become more ingrained in the community this quickly than Isaiah,” Presti said. “It needs to be spoken and said out loud. Incredible commitment from day one. He’s done more individual community work than I think I’ve ever seen a player do, and he’s just been awesome in that way. We’ve got to acknowledge that.”
To win a championship, you need to hit on most of your roster moves to get to that point. The Thunder did that with Caruso and Hartenstein. Those two moves were universally graded as some of the best of last year’s summer. But even the most optimistic folks should be surprised by how impactful they’ve been.
“Those guys have been excellent. They’ve been very selfless, and they’ve been additive to what we’ve done. And they didn’t feel pressured to demonstrate their value,” Presti said. “They’ve allowed themselves to just be absorbed by the team, and they’ve pushed us forward in a lot of different ways.”
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