The Indiana Pacers are off to a respectable 3-1 start this season. In doing so, they're averaging an impressive 116.3 points per game while shooting an astounding 51.8 percent from the field. That's nice and all, but, at the end of the day, if this team is going to finally break through in the playoffs they need a Most Valuable Player Award-caliber season from Victor Oladipo.
It wasn't too long ago that Oladipo was performing among the elite guards in the NBA. In his debut season with the Pacers (2017-18), he averaged 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 2.4 steals per game en route to helping them take LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Oladipo was thriving as the team's go-to scorer, coming through with clutch buckets, and playing at a high level on both ends of the floor; he was playing like a star. Then he suffered a knee injury in Jan. 2019, which sidelined him for roughly 12 months. In his brief return to the floor last season, Oladipo looked a step slow and wasn't a mere semblance of his old self.
Across the three games he has appeared in this season, Victor Oladipo has averaged 22.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and one steal per game while shooting 61.4 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from beyond the arc. Of course, it's just three games. That said, this is the player new head coach Nate Bjorkgren needs Oladipo to be. One could argue that this play has to be the baseline.
The Pacers have a conglomerate of reliable, sturdy players, some of whom have grown more impactful with age. Domantas Sabonis is an inside force who hits the boards at a high level; Malcolm Brogdon is an efficient shooter and potent defender; T.J. Warren is an electric scorer; Myles Turner stretches the floor and is a defensive backbone; Doug McDermott is a superb outside shooter; Aaron Holiday provides a scoring jolt off the bench; Justin Holiday is a reputable defender.
This is a good roster. It just so happens to be a tick below its Eastern Conference comrades when it comes to being the team to beat and/or the best team in the conference.
A common theme with the Pacers' competition is star power. The Milwaukee Bucks, Brooklyn Nets, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and Boston Celtics all have at least one star player and/or a grouping of impactful players with continuity. Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors are a year removed from winning the NBA Finals, and the Washington Wizards have a deeply talented roster despite their dispiriting 0-4 start.
Sabonis has continued to produce at a linear rate across his NBA career; there's nothing wrong with his game. The issue is those around him and Oladipo are somewhat limited. Brogdon is more of a shooter than an off-the-dribble scorer; Turner is a minimal threat in the paint; McDermott mostly spots up from distance; the Holiday brothers aren't isolation players; Warren puts the ball on the floor but, as is, won't propel the Pacers.
Oladipo playing like a star is what gets the Pacers on the same level as the field.
He has the skill set to be a perennial All-Star. Oladipo is quick, skies above the rim, can stretch the floor, and defends well out on the perimeter and in isolation. The 28-year-old is supposed to be in the thick of his prime. For his sake, he benefits from playing like such a player because he could be in line for a max contract (Oladipo is a free agent after this season).
Picture a Pacers offense with Sabonis finishing in the paint with ease, Oladipo playing like an All-Star, and Warren flourishing off the ball: they'd be a well-oiled machine with offensive firepower across the board.
Late in games, the Bucks are giving the ball to Giannis Antetokounmpo while the Miami Heat are giving the ball to Jimmy Butler. The Nets are going to either Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving. Indiana has to go to Oladipo.
There's too much money invested in this rotation and risk associated with Oladipo's continued presence (they could've traded him for value rather than running the risk of losing him to free agency) for the Pacers to not do something in the playoffs. Literally, do something, anything. The Pacers have been bounced out of the first round of the playoffs in five consecutive seasons and have lost nine consecutive playoff games.
Under Bjorkgren's predecessor, Nate McMillan, the Pacers were a defensive-minded team that mostly played in the halfcourt offensively. They were good at what they did, but their play peaked at a first-round exit. Maybe they become more of a running team that forces the issue earlier in the shot clock as the season progresses? We haven't seen Victor Oladipo unleashed, rather it has been him playing well in the halfcourt and ambushing teams with his athleticism.
It's a star-driven league. Even the teams that are perennial contenders with the same core have at least one standout player. Victor Oladipo is the driving force of the Pacers' offense, and the only way they're going to turn a corner from a competitive standpoint is him playing to his capabilities.
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