3 Goals for Houston Rockets center Isaiah Hartenstein

1. Continue to crash the glass aggressively

Much like Hartenstein has the height to be a good defender, he certainly has the height to contribute on the boards. Half of the rebounding game is positioning yourself in the right place early, and Isaiah has demonstrated he has a knack for doing that well this preseason.

While 3.2 rebounds per game don’t seem like much, it is when you consider he averaged only 8.4 minutes in the preseason. Converted to a per 36-minute basis, his rebounding leaps to 13.6 rebounds per game, with 6.4 of those being offensive. Looking at per 100 possessions pushes that total to 15. Of course, stats don’t always work that way and obviously Hartenstein has done much of his rebounding against end-of-the-bench guys.

Still, though, the big man has had flashes of controlling the glass on both sides of the floor — even grabbing four offensive rebounds in nine minutes in a preseason victory over the Toronto Raptors. Considering the Rockets finished tied for 29th in the league last season in defensive rebounds per game, there is a lot of value in what Hartenstein has to offer.

In his G League career, Isaiah Hartenstein has averaged 9.9 rebounds per game. To earn more minutes with the Rockets, he’ll at least need to average half of that to show he’s making an effort that can make a difference.