To the casual NBA fan, before this season, Victor Oladipo may have got lost easily in the shuffle.
Despite being the second overall pick to the perennially tanking Orlando Magic back in 2013, Oladipo has always seemed like just another number in a long production line of hyper-athletic shooting guards who struggled with the outside shot.
Anything Oladipo did in Orlando always came with the caveat that it was on a bad team and therefore inherently meaningless. Even his appearance in the Slam-Dunk Contest back in 2015 was a footnote written in the annals of Zach Lavine’s folklore.
Most people that watch the NBA regularly knew Oladipo was a perfectly fine role player, maybe a third guy on a really good playoff team if he ever learned to shoot. Even still, it was, at the very least, mildly surprising to see him get thrown to the curb by the Magic in the ill-fated deal for Serge Ibaka, a trade that also lost them another future-Pacer in Domantas Sabonis (via a draft pick).
Still, this was an excellent opportunity for Oladipo to show what he could do on an almost-certain playoff team in the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In Orlando, for his three-year tenure in Florida, Oladipo shot 33.9 per cent from behind the three-point line.
Those familiar with the Points Per Possession (PPP) metric will know that this is a fingernail above the break-even point of 1 PPP, meaning that his three-point shot was an average shot by way of efficiency.
However, playing with Russell Westbrook and his ball-dominant ways, Oladipo’s usage was always going to plummet. In his lone season in OKC, Oladipo’s usage rate – the percentage of possessions a player ends with either a field goal attempt or a turnover – was a career low 21.4 per cent.
What was important though was his overall efficiency, which took a promising leap, as he shot then-career highs in overall FG per cent (44.7%), 3P% (36.1%) and effective field goal per cent (51%).
Oladipo’s stint in Oklahoma City proved that he could be an effective piece on a very good team, but, again, there was an asterisk considering he was largely helped by the MVP calibre season of Russell Westbrook, a season we likely won’t see again anytime soon.
Therefore, when Oladipo was again included in a trade, again with Sabonis, this time for Paul George as the Thunder went all in, new questions came up. Would the Pacers, gutted of their franchise cornerstone and fan favourite, be even slightly competitive?
How do 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game sound? What about 37.1 per cent from downtown, on nearly 6 attempts per game? How about a league-leading 2.4 steals per game? First-time All Star? Laughably obvious favourite for Most Improved Player?
This is the Oladipo that exists when he is the alpha, and it looks a lot like what Paul George was giving the Pacers 12 months ago.
Oladipo in 2017-18 is a legitimate top-20 player in the NBA, a notion that would’ve got you laughed out of any basketball conversation as recently as this time last year.
What Oladipo has done for the Indiana Pacers this season has been astronomical. He’s leading the team in scoring and steals, is second in assists and has been the dominant force he ceded to last year in Westbrook, sporting a career high 30.1 per cent usage rate.
What else is impressive beyond the raw numbers, though, is how Oladipo has transformed the Pacers from a team that many talking heads viewed as one bound for the lottery, to a team that is currently 1-0 up in a first round match-up against the reigning Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
Throughout the regular season, the Pacers were 6.4 points per possession better with Oladipo on the court. When he rested, the Pacers were 7.6 points per possession worse. It’s both an indictment on the Pacers and an accolade for Oladipo that the numbers are so extreme, because the Pacers obviously struggled with him out, but he helped lead an elite unit, especially defensively, where the Pacers ranked third over the season in both steals and turnovers forced.
We’re seeing a more decisive Victor Oladipo than ever before. He broke the 40 point plateau for the first time in his career and led the NBA in games with at least five steals – he had eight of them.
He also had the ability to take over the game when necessary, as he scored at least ten consecutive points for his team three times, a mark matched by the likes of Russell Westbrook and Devin Booker, as well as being sixth in the entire NBA in clutch scoring, with 117 of his points coming when the game was on the line.
Oladipo has broken down the door to the ranks of superstardom with a dominant display in the home of cornhole, the Indy 500 and Hoosiers. It probably wouldn’t even be a stretch to say that he will get some votes polled in the Most Valuable Player Race, even though he obviously won’t win.
One thing we do know for sure, though, is that Victor Oladipo is the new, undisputed king of the crossroads.
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