As Heat remains patient, Victor Oladipo provides ‘snapshot’ of what he can be on offense
.JPG "Miami Heat guard Victor Oladipo is in action in the first half during an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, in Salt Lake City.")
After not completing a dunk in his first 10 games of the season, Miami Heat guard Victor Oladipo finally threw one down in his 11th game.
It was worth the wait, as Oladipo used his burst to dribble into the paint before jumping over and through 7-foot Jazz center Walker Kessler for a right-handed slam in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s road win over the Jazz.
“Man, he dunked on that man,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said to reporters afterwards.
It was the highlight of Oladipo’s season-best offensive performance, as he finished Saturday’s victory with a season-high 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field, 4-of-9 shooting from three-point range and 5-of-7 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds and five assists. He also played a season-high 35 minutes off the bench.
“Everybody celebrated him in the locker room because only the locker room understands what he’s been going through for the last two years,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Oladipo following Saturday’s game in Salt Lake City. “So much of his journey has been solitary.”
That journey has included two major surgeries on Oladipo’s right knee in the past three-plus years and a left knee issue that forced him to miss the first 24 games this season. Entering Monday, the 30-year-old Olaidpo has played in just 23 regular-season games with the Heat since Miami acquired him in a trade with the Houston Rockets in March 2021.
That time away from the court spent recovering from injuries has Oladipo now working extra behind the scenes in an effort to recapture the type of rhythm he had when he was voted to the NBA All-Star Game, NBA All-Defensive First Team and All-NBA Third Team in 2017-18 as a member of the Indiana Pacers.
“I’m in here every day working. They see what I got to do,” Oladipo said of his coaches and teammates, as the Heat continued its five-game West Coast trip on Monday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. “They see because I’m always in there, I’m always in the gym, I’m always in the weight room. I appreciate them noticing, you know what I’m saying, and showing their respect toward it because it means a lot to me, obviously.”
That work hadn’t translated to the offensive end before Saturday, as he entered his season-best night averaging just eight points on an inefficient 36.4 percent shooting from the field and 10-of-41 (24.4 percent) shooting from three-point range in his first 10 games. In fact, he’s still shooting only 8 of 20 (40 percent) from within the restricted area this season.
But Oladipo has made an immediate impact with his ability to be disruptive on defense, totaling 20 steals and 32 deflections in his first 11 games to rank second on the team in both categories since he made his season debut. Jimmy Butler is the only Heat player who ranks ahead of Oladipo in those areas during that time.
“We’re not expecting this to happen overnight,” Spoelstra said. “But we want to commit to him in this process, he wants to commit to the team and right now 11 games in, the easiest way for him to make an impact is defensively.
“But he’s been working so diligently behind the scenes on the off days, after games he’s up in the practice gym working on his rhythm and all that stuff. If you’ve been out 70 percent of the games in the last four years, it takes time and you have to have patience, perspective on that. I told him the other day, I want him to have a little bit of grace with himself going through this process.”
Oladipo needed that reminder because his offensive struggles have frustrated him at times this season. He remembers the numbers he produced before the injuries and he wants to get closer to where he was when he averaged 23.1 points on 47.7 percent shooting from the field and 37.1 percent shooting from three-point range with the Pacers in the 2017-18 season.
“I have an expectation of myself,” Oladipo said. “When I say that, I mean like I expect big things when it comes to this game and I’ve done great things in my career in this game and I don’t expect anything less from me. When it’s in the process, I’m human and you sometimes get a little frustrated. But then you have to deflect and take a step back and realize, ‘Bro, you had a pretty different journey, champ.’ So it’s going to take some time.”
The Heat needs Oladipo’s offense to become more efficient and consistent than it has been so far this season because that spark off the bench would help fix some of the team’s issues. The Heat’s reserves entered Monday averaging the second-fewest points in the NBA at 27.1 points per game this season.
But it’s all a work in progress, as the Heat continues to take a cautious approach with Oladipo to help him stay healthy and fresh. Oladipo has yet to play in both games of a back-to-back since returning from injury this season.
“We love being on this journey with him and ultimately I think it will still take 40 or 50 games for him to get fully in rhythm,” Spoelstra said. “But we got a snapshot [on Saturday] of what it could look like at the end of this.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2023 at 10:00 AM.
