This update is genuinely SCARY...

The Thunder are still two months away from their season actually getting started, yet here we are getting the injury report underway early, as it's been announced that Isaiah Hartenstein has sustained an ankle injury while training for the German national team for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, and this is a trend that cannot continue into the new season. The Thunder had their year upended last season because of key injuries to guys like Jalen Williams and AJ Mitchell, and this team was one of the most decimated teams in the entire league last year, and Isaiah Hartenstein certainly was not exempt from those injuries, as he's dealt with a fair share of lower body injuries, and he just had a new one as well here within the last handful of weeks. So how severe is the ankle injury? How long can we expect him to be out? And what does this mean going into his upcoming season just off of fresh contract extension this summer? We're going to answer all of those questions here in today's breakdown on Thunder Digest. Welcome into the channel, and I hope that I don't have to make another injury update video for a long time, because I'm getting sick of it, to be honest with you. The Thunder, when you look back at last season, I mean, we still have a chart right here, we kept track of the amount of games missed due to injury, and these numbers are unacceptable. And I get that it's out of your control, I get that all these guys have had so many different types of injuries, Isaiah Hartenstein has dealt with lower body stuff, you've had AJ Mitchell, who has had some calf and hamstring things, along with J-Dub, hopefully J-Dub's stuff can be getting better now that he's working with SGA's trainer, we covered that in a video a couple weeks ago if you want to go check that out, but Isaiah Hartenstein, he obviously had a rough year, I mean, you just look at his injury history, this is all from 2025-26, and you add it all together, and IHART ended up missing 34 games last year due to a soleus strain, due to an ankle injury, and due to a knee injury, and so he was coming back from all of that, he played obviously in the postseason, but he wasn't 100% even up until the playoffs started, and now he's got this ankle injury in those World Cup qualifiers that he was set to take place with for Germany for the first time since 2018, but now he's not going to be able to do that. So we'll let this press release for you guys, you guys can decipher and read this whole thing right here, I'll give you guys a minute to do that, because I'm sure that you're all fluent in German, no, this was a release that they gave themselves, and I'm going to translate this for you guys here as well with what this release says and everything else, so before we get into that though, here's a quick word from our sponsor, Anson Belt & Buckle. If you're anything like me, then you'll understand that frustrating struggle of finding the perfect belt to go with a great outfit, and that's exactly why I'm excited to have Anson Belt & Buckle as the sponsor of today's video, and instead of holes, Anson uses a microadjustable track system, so your belt's going to fit you perfectly every single time. 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So shout out to Anson for once again sponsoring today's video, go check them out in the description as well as in the pinned comment down below to go take advantage of our deal, but back to talking about Isaiah Hartenstein's injury that he suffered with Team Germany, and here's essentially what that press release that again was written in German had to say, starting it off, Isaiah Hartenstein will be held out for Germany's World Cup qualifiers due to a new ankle injury, I don't think this is going to be a make or break situation for Team Germany, they're still the ranked number two team in the world behind Team USA, they've still got a lot of dudes over there that are really balling out right now, they should be okay without him, they have said that he's going to have more time, more opportunities to come back and play for them as well, but the last bit of that release after extensive consultations with the medical staff for the Thunder, who have been one of the more busy medical staffs around the NBA, it was decided that it was in his best interest to focus on rehabilitation this summer, and that's really important because the one date that you guys need to keep in mind, before October 20th when the season begins down in San Antonio, this date right here, September 22nd, is the date to really keep in your minds because that is when teams report for their first practices, and the Thunder will basically have from when this video is coming out, a month and two days from then, and depending on severity of ankle injuries, it can range from two to six weeks, we know that Iheart suffered this injury very recently, and that this is something that he's starting his journey on to recovery right now, so there's a decent chance that Iheart goes into that September 22nd report day, maybe still on the very, very back end of this rehab on that ankle injury, and the hope would be that this is not going to follow him into the preseason and then maybe even into the start of the regular season, because to be honest with you, Isaiah Hartenstein's health is one of the biggest X factors the Thunder have this year, he will be incredibly crucial to the Thunder's team's success this season, with all the new things that you have coming and going on the roster, obviously a lot of stuff has stayed, but one of the biggest things the Thunder are trying to figure out is how they're going to make this whole big man situation work, and Gabriel actually made a video on this yesterday talking about our expectations for Adai Mara and Thomas Sorber, those two guys have quite literally never played the 5 before in the NBA, Isaiah Hartenstein, he is this team's 5, Chet is the 4 when both of those guys are available, Chet should not be playing the 5 really ever in this league, I know he's tall, but his skill set is much better for the 4, Isaiah Hartenstein is this team's only true 5 that it has on the roster that has done this thing consistently, and you look at the Thunder's all time record when Isaiah Hartenstein plays, it's absurd, they're 88-16 when Iheart is on the court, but the problem is that Isaiah Hartenstein has not been able to stay healthy consistently, in 164 games since joining OKC 2 years ago, he has played in just 104 of those, quick math, that's 60 missed games over the course of 2 seasons, so that number is going to need to come down this year, especially when you consider that 3 year $75 million contract extension that he just signed very early in this offseason, the one that was the first domino to fall in figuring out the rest of this Thunder offseason equation, and we know that Iheart was a big reason why you won that Larry O'Brien 2 years ago, and he's a big reason why the Thunder got to their point where they were at last year, even without all of the injuries, but this lower body trend that he's had going on, as well as JW, as well as AJ Mitchell, if this continues into 2026-27, the fear is that we're going to have almost an identical story of what happened this past time around too, where if you can't be healthy against the Spurs when it matters most, you may be really, really playing from behind the 8 ball. Iheart averaged just a hair under 10 points and 10 boards a game this past season, you see his net rating with Chet when they are both on the floor in over 600 minutes, plus 22.1, the dudes need to be available for this team to thrive, and the Thunder putting a lot of money into that Iheart, and the JW camp, of needing those guys to stay healthy, because you're putting a lot of money towards them, and you have made and are going to continue to make some really big decisions around the rest of your team, because you've allocated money to those guys, and Iheart, he did take a pay cut, I mean he was even actually on a German podcast, I think two days ago, talking about this, he said this about taking that pay cut, trying to keep the Thunder under the second apron, and basically he had mentioned that he prioritized staying with the team, over going and getting more money somewhere else, which isn't a surprise, we've known that Iheart, his wife, and his family love Oklahoma City, and it kind of just leads back to him being one of the most important pieces of this Thunder team this year, his health and his availability will be crucial for the Thunder's success in 2026-27, so we know that he is going to have to rehab another ankle injury now, and I want you guys now to get involved down below in the comments, let me know how concerned you are for Iheart's health this season, considering what it looked like last year, and now him having a new ankle injury here this fall, before the team reports in a month, let me know your guys' thoughts on all of that down below, hopefully this is my last injury video for a long time, gonna knock on wood, gonna wear my hat backwards like a rally cap, do all of the things, I don't know what I need to do, but this cannot continue, my mental health cannot take more injuries for the Thunder this season, so hopefully this is it, and Iheart will be good to go by that September 22nd report date, when the teams all get back to their action and getting work together before the preseason, so that's all the time we have for today's video, gonna go ahead and get out of here for now, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow, so stay tuned for another video coming up then on ThunderDigest.