The Rockets don’t ask for a whole lot of skills from their bigmen. Just roll to the rim, and dunk it when you can. Try and play some defense while they’re at it. Jumpers? They don’t need all five people standing behind the arc. Go back next to the rim and wait for the ball. Russell Westbrook will handle the rebounding.
Clint Capela may be the guy with the big stats and the associated big contract, but in terms of actual skills, it seems like Isaiah Hartenstein is about on par with him. Not quite as lob-prone (Capela is one of the best lob-catchers in NBA history probably, or at least James Harden makes him look the part), but he doesn’t need direct lobs to score. And did I see a post move in this game? I think I did, which is one more post move than I’ve ever seen Capela do. Yeah, I’m exaggerating to make a point. So what? I’ve seen professional sports writers on ESPN do it all the time, and I’m just as good if not better than those meatballs.
This is the second start in Hartenstein’s career, and I think we are witnessing the birth of a brand new trend. Because he dropped 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists in his first start, and now he’s dropped 17 points, 15 rebounds (where was Westbrook for all of those?), and 5 blocks (all legit, by the way, no wimpy strips here). This nascent trend is clear: when Hartenstein starts, he beasts. It helped that the Timberwolves didn’t really have any NBA-quality bigs available to play, but you know what else helped? Hartenstein being a beast.