Victor Oladipo is back in the NBA! Sort of.
Oladipo, who made two All-Star teams as a member of the Indiana Pacers, agreed to join the Wisconsin Herd, the G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks. The
Santa Cruz Warriors had the waiver priority to select Oladipo, but traded his rights to the Herd in exchange for a first-round pick in the 2027 G League draft.
That’s not totally worthless. This year’s G League draft saw Dillon Jones and Tyler Smith go at No. 1 and No. 2. Both were relatively high picks in the 2024 NBA draft, with Jones going at No. 26 and Smith selected at No. 33. The rest of the first round mainly featured vaguely familiar names like Jamal Mashburn, Jr., melodious names like Kario Oquendo and Ebenezer Dowuona, and Wizarding World of Harry Potter names like A.J. Hoggard.
It’s likely that Oladipo made an arrangement with the Bucks organization to continue his quest to return to the NBA, where he hasn’t played since he ruptured his patella tendon in the first round of the 2023 playoffs. At the time, Oladipo had fought his way back from a devastating Jan. 2019 injury where he ruptured his quad tendon, just weeks before he was going to play in his second All-Star Game.
Oladipo had become a rotation player for a Miami Heat team that, led by Jimmy Butler, would made a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals. In his second playoff game, Oladipo went up for a dunk and suffered a no-contact injury to his knee, ending his season and sending him back to the operating room and months more rehabilitation.
The Bucks seem willing to see what Oladipo has left in the low-pressure environment of the G League. On a team that lacks firepower around Giannis Antetokounmpo, having a player like Oladipo available off the bench could be valuable, if his body can hold up. He played against NBA teams during the preseason as part of the Guangzhou Loong Lions and showed flashes of his old All-Star self. Fun fact! Chinese fans reportedly refer to Oladipo as the “Diligent Mamba.”
The Warriors seem to have decided that they have enough 2018 All-Stars on the wrong side of 30 on the roster already, so they let Oladipo chase his destiny in America’s Dairyland. Besides, when you can acquire a draft pick that could become the next O’Mar Stanley or J.Z. Zaher, you’ve got to pull the trigger.
