General Manager Sam Presti and a group of Thunder executives traveled to Eugene, Oregon, to recruit Isaiah Hartenstein as soon as NBA rules allowed at the opening of the 2024 free-agency window. Hartenstein arrived as a journeyman center — a second-round pick who had spent time in the G League, been waived and traded, and landed in New York as his fifth team in five seasons — but was viewed as the franchise’s most important free-agent target.
Presti’s pitch, according to Hartenstein’s recollection, offered no playing-time guarantees. ‘I can’t promise you minutes. I can’t promise you a role. But I can promise you a culture,’ Presti told him, while also presenting a chance to compete for a title and a richer contract than New York could offer. The Knicks’ maximum offer was four years and $72.5 million under early Bird rules; Oklahoma City signed Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million deal.
Presti had exercised patience after the Thunder became the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA history, preserving a large cache of draft assets instead of making a blockbuster move. At the 2024 deadline Oklahoma City made two trades that did not immediately upgrade the roster: acquiring Gordon Hayward from Charlotte while shedding about $18 million in salary for the following season, and surrendering a late first-round pick to facilitate Dallas’ deal for Daniel Gafford while receiving 2028 first-round swap rights. The Thunder were eliminated by Luka Doncic’s Mavericks in the second round of the 2024 playoffs.
Rather than chase a star, Presti prioritized fit. He traded for Alex Caruso on June 21 and met Hartenstein nine days later. Caruso, a defensive disruptor who won an NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, and Hartenstein were targeted as veteran complements for the young core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.
Character evaluations mattered as much as scouting reports. The front office viewed Caruso and Hartenstein as connectors and competitors — smart, selfless, physical and fearless — who could stabilize a young locker room. ‘Sam has passed on talents to get human beings,’ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told ESPN, saying that approach has helped the group’s chemistry.
Presti shaped that philosophy during a formative stint in the San Antonio Spurs front office in the early 2000s, rising from an intern as the Spurs won three championships in his seven years there before he was hired as the NBA’s youngest general manager a year before the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.
