Miami Heat reserve Victor Oladipo was once seen as one of the rising stars in the NBA. Once he found his way to the Indiana Pacers, he seemed to be making the star turn his potential teased at earlier in his career.

Oladipo became an All-Star in Year 5, bumping his numbers up to franchise player-worthy heights. He averaged 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and a league-leading 2.4 steals per game. But outside of the numbers, his play on the court inspired belief that he could be one of the best players in the NBA going forward.

But fast forward to four years later as he makes his comeback with the Heat, and the narrative on Victor Oladipo has virtually flipped entirely.

Via The Athletic's Joe Vardon:

“The game, the world, kind of forgot about me,” said the Heat guard. “It tests your faith. It tests you as a person and it helps you realize how strong you truly are.”

Victor Oladipo has battled through a lingering knee injury which has sapped his ability to take over games the past couple of years. The injury woes are made even worse by the fact that he turned down a nine-figure extension with the Indiana Pacers, now having to settle for a one-year veteran's minimum deal with the Heat.

“I know when I’m right and I’m 100 percent physically what I’m capable of doing, so I don’t have to worry about anything but getting healthy,” Oladipo said. “I still plan on being really, really, really good at this game and I still plan on being one of the greats.”

The nine-year NBA veteran has played in four games for the Heat thus far this season. He's averaged 5.5 points, 2.8 assists, and 1.3 rebounds in those contests while playing just a shade over 16 minutes per game.

Having a guy of Victor Oladipo's caliber coming off the Heat bench to spell your star players like Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Tyler Herro is a massive luxury for Miami. However, it's unlikely that his role increases dramatically this late into the regular season with just a handful of games left on the slate. Head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke out on being “disciplined” when it comes to integrating Oladipo into the current rotation.

“This is going to be about us tempering the expectations,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This is the biggest win of all, the fact that he had had three straight years of frustrating health and injury things that he was dealing with …and he’s out here, able to compete. We all want more, I’m sure he wants more. This is about discipline. We have to all be disciplined about this.”

Victor Oladipo is still just 29 years old and by all accounts has trended in the right direction with his knee injury recovery. If he can regain some of his All-Star form with the Miami Heat this season, they become that much more lethal come postseason, likely armed with the one-seed and home-court advantage against the rest of the East.