Thunder's Alex Caruso Gives Honest Opinion on Absence of Isaiah Hartenstein

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Nathaniel Holloway | Last updated Jan 17, 2025 10:00 AM ET

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the best teams in the NBA this season, but they recently lost a major piece of their lineup to an injury.

Isaiah Hartenstein is set to be reevaluated in approximately one week after suffering a calf strain in Oklahoma City’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday. His loss is a big one, as the Thunder are now down both of their starting centers.

Of course, Chet Holmgren has also been sidelined due to injury. He has been out since early November with a hip injury, but Hartenstein has been able to fill in for him at an elite level until his recent injury.

While the Thunder were expected to struggle without a main center in their starting lineup, they proved everyone wrong in Thursday night’s dominating win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jaylin Williams was Oklahoma City’s starting center in the matchup and Ben Carlson also provided some size off the bench.

Despite their strong efforts against Cleveland, the Thunder may still struggle due to the lack of size on their roster until Hartenstein returns. Alex Caruso recently gave his thoughts on the subject and also hinted at himself possibly playing center.

“Yeah, I mean I’ve at least got some reps at it now so I’ll know what to expect,” Caruso said on the possibility of him playing center. “It’s going to be one of those things we’ll do by committee again. It helps having K Rich (Kenrich Williams) back and J Will (Jaylin Williams) we will at least have a center this time so we won’t be small the entire game.”

Caruso mentioned the returns of Kenrich and Jaylin Williams, both of whom were out earlier in the season while both Hartenstein and Holmgren missed time. With both of them back, the Thunder will now have some extra size this time around.

The Thunder will also be able to rely on both Caruso and Jalen Williams, who were both able to move into the center position with the Thunder playing small ball earlier in the season. Due to this, Oklahoma City will likely fill the position by committee like Caruso said, but it will still be a disadvantage for them with the amount of solid big men in the NBA.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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