To many, the youth of this OKC Thunder team combined with their top-flight regular season success is truly astonishing.
With an average age of roughly 24 years old, Oklahoma City has become not only the youngest team to clinch back-to-back number one seeds in a conference standing but also to claim homecourt advantage throughout the entirety of the NBA Playoffs.
On top of this, they are currently heading into the postseason with the odds-makers tabbing them as the favorite to take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy at +180.
Yet, despite all of this, there are still some who aren't sold on the club's viability to win a championship this season, and a popular reason for this seems to be their widely celebrated youth.
13-year veteran Marcus Morris Sr. recently vocalized this concern about their lack of playoff experience as a result of their collective age, begging the question, "What has OKC done outside of the regular season?"
Since this April 3 appearance on ESPN's First Take, the doubtful sentiment has officially made its way back to the Thunder and their players, and, when asked to share his feelings about it during Tuesday's practice media session, Isaiah Hartenstein dropped the perfect retort that should quiet the naysayers.
"I think also, historically, young teams like us haven't won 68 games. I think that's another fact," Hartenstein said.
Isaiah Hartenstein stresses Thunder are not constrained by NBA history
Granted, even with Hartenstein's confidence in his team, he's far from being under the impression that setting yet another historic NBA milestone like becoming the second-youngest team to win a title is a guarantee.
"We have to earn it. It starts zero-zero. I think we have so much confidence in ourselves but, I mean, we can say as much as we want right now, we have to go in and earn it and go take it... No matter who we're playing against, we're confident, we don't fear nobody but we have to go take it," Hartenstein said.
As fans witnessed last year, this Thunder team cannot get comfortable with their ability to run the postseason gamut solely based on how they finished out the regular season.
Though they entered the 2024 playoffs as the number one seed, OKC was ultimately bounced in six games during the Western Conference Semifinals by the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks.
With that said, it's hard to lean into the notion that just because young and inexperienced teams have generally fizzled out of the playoffs in the past they're always bound to do so.
On numerous occasions throughout this historic multi-year run, this Thunder squad has set new marks in the game's all-time record books that were previously seen as impossible.
From establishing the new apex of point and turnover differentials in a single season to becoming the first team to have double-digit win increases in three straight campaigns, Oklahoma City has regularly proven itself to be a real trailblazer.
Now, heading into the playoffs, Isaiah Hartenstein is silencing the outside noise and has his sights set on adding a new record-setting feat to this team's collection.