When the Clippers signed Isaiah Hartenstein in the offseason — and put him through a training camp battle with Harry Giles — the expectation was that the 23-year-old would serve as a stopgap backup until Serge Ibaka was healthy enough to return.
Hartenstein manned that position with aplomb while Ibaka recovered from back surgery, to the point that Ibaka didn’t have a place in the rotation. After two games, the veteran center went down to the G League to regain his condition so he could better impact the Clippers. It worked to an extent, but Ibaka essentially shifted over to power forward, playing more than half of his minutes next to either Hartenstein or Ivica Zubac.