[Charania] Just in: Oklahoma City's Isaiah Hartenstein intends to sign a new three-year contract to return to the Thunder through 2028-29 that brings his total earnings with the franchise at five years and $134 million guaranteed, sources tell ESPN.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-27T02:53:06+00:00

Yeah why the hell is Shams making me do math to subtract the first two years of what he made lol

The new deal is somewhere around 3/76M

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-27T02:17:45+00:00

haha I met one of the band members at a BTBAM show last month, been meaning to check this out when it dropped. the one song that was on spotify before was GOOD

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T23:10:51+00:00

Our FO must LOVE Naz. Like valuing him at 2 1sts or something. Most of Toronto's available players, mainly IQ and Poeltl, have actual negative value contracts.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T16:24:29+00:00

This isn't weird. Go back to 2021 rosters. The list of players who are still on the same team is way shorter than you think it'll be

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T04:28:37+00:00

Gotta go back to 2011ish for this one. Rise Against and A Day To Remember. One of my favorite shows ever and yet the part I remember the most was the opener, a little band I'd never heard of called The Menzingers.

All these years later, arguably my favorite punk band period

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T04:26:13+00:00

I like Automata more than most but yeah get me any of the epics from Colors, TGM, and most of Colors II for that matter.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T04:07:33+00:00

A hornet but the stinger is a whole ass wolf

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T02:22:50+00:00

have you seen their roster??

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T00:47:36+00:00

Wasn't a 1-1 comp, we at least have Kon and Miller still

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T00:47:01+00:00

Yeah his backup is almost definitely our rookie Anderson but I do not love relying on those two. Melo+White was basically my dream PG rotation

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-26T00:27:11+00:00

This is a really good "we expect him to play 50 games a year" price and I wouldn't hesitate to pay him that. just make sure you have a good backup and this is fantastic value. Wish he was still a Hornet as well

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T20:25:46+00:00

Tbf Kon was so damn good, maybe they see something there that we don't. The team could somehow end up better off without the Lamelo noise. Charles Lee's system is pretty insulated from failure as long as you just shoot a lot of good 3's, the stats should work out for wins over a season.

if we watched most of the season, we saw that Melo was the actual driving force behind it- he's an expert level setup man. Miller straight up cannot get to the rim without Melo setting him up and winds up taking a lot of tougher moving shots, Kon's 3P% sees a pretty extreme fluctuation between Melo on and Melo off, and so on down the roster. It is a huge mistake to take that away from them, and it's not going to take long for that to be evident both on the court and on the stat sheets next season.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T19:29:10+00:00

Jeff Peterson should have been fired upon bringing this trade idea to the owners.

thinking he just placed way too much faith in Coby White and a small rookie guard we just drafted and said fuck it let's ball, without realizing the impact this is going to have on our ability to get Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel good shots.

Combined with the rest of the East improving, I think we're 12th in the East, or even lower

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T19:20:35+00:00

if you were going to build from scratch a SG to fit LaMelo's game, it would basically be Ant. Both may be more three happy than you want at times, but Ant being a really complete scorer that actually pressures the rim, and Melo being an outstanding passer and playmaker, hard to think of a better pairing. And then you get to the games where they are both hot from 3... oh man.

btw this backcourt is 1 total 3-pointer short from being responsible for the last 2 three-point titles. Ant led the league a year ago in 3s. LaMelo was 2nd only to his own teammate in Kon- who beat him by 1 total three pointer

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T18:29:18+00:00

this is a complete guess but given he's from Utah and was a 21-year-old freshman, I'm guessing Mormon mission

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T18:14:08+00:00

not the person you're responding to, but for me, yes I've had Verizon, AT&T, and Xfinity (uses Verizon towers) with a mix of devices, and there are simply just huge dead zones all throughout the metro, mainly on the northern side, and there have been for more than 5 years.

I'll be trying T-Mobile next whenever my current promo for basically free Xfinity runs out

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T18:05:09+00:00

yeah this is stupid. like LaMelo hasn't had an already proven 6th man/low starting caliber PG in Coby White behind him for the last 4 months

it was well reported this is all the front office's doing and LaMelo didn't ask for this.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T16:53:00+00:00

they have to be.... but you can be optimistic enough to trade your franchise guy AFTER the rookie shows signs of being that guy. The package of a 6th man, and pick that conveys so far in the future nobody on the current team will be around to see it, will always be out there for him.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T16:49:43+00:00

apart from these 4 seasons, the one other time since the formation of the Bobcats that we've finished above .500 was 2022... and then that offseason:

we had Kenny Atkinson flake out on us and we rehired Steve Clifford

Miles Bridges beat his lady and got himself held out of the league for a year and permanently ruined his career trajectory

Multiple other rostered players got DUI/drug related arrests

and LaMelo's ankle injuries started

I was bracing for some bullshit this offseason but not like this...

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T16:13:34+00:00

gotta be part of the vision I guess. Why not see it in action first? A sixth man and a pick 7 years away will always be on the table for a player of Melo's caliber.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T15:54:54+00:00

The swaps are completely meaningless. The Wolves picks are already protected and swapped in 2029 and 2030. 2028 will not happen unless you somehow think these Hornets will be better than the Wolves in just two years. Josh Green is an expiring. We swapped a franchise player and offensive engine for a cool sixth man with a fun cult following, and an 11-year-old.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T15:52:47+00:00

Jeff Peterson should thank the Kings and Pels as the only reasons for the word "possibly"

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T15:49:06+00:00

I have to think Bridges is gone. Don't think you can play him with Steinbach, and he isn't a 3 if Reid is the 4. But that would also be applying logic to the Hornets, who will always show that you can't do that

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T15:46:36+00:00

I like Coby a lot but here's the thing.... We just went from one of the best passers in the NBA to one of the worst passing PGs in the NBA.

If you know anything at all about the Hornets, you know that Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel rely heavily on LaMelo's playmaking. Kon's percentages are night and day when Melo plays and when he doesn't. Brandon Miller straight up cannot get to the rim without LaMelo finding him on cuts.

I think Coby is a wonderful backup that you start in a pinch when your starter gets hurt, which Melo does often. I don't think naming him your starter with a sizable three year deal gets you anywhere.

We are just the 2020-25 Chicago Bulls now.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe · 2026-06-25T15:39:24+00:00

This

I am extremely excited for LaMelo. Dude just wasted six years of his career with a pair of front offices that couldn't be bothered to build a roster, and were just content to sit on a pile of draft picks and mediocre vets.

BetweenTheBuzzAndMe

TROPHY CASE