Longtime NBA fans surely remember former Most Improved Player Victor Oladipo, who has been out of the league for two seasons. He’s spent a lot of that time away from the court dealing with knee injuries that plagued his career, but he’s healthy now, and he’ll attempt to get back to the league with the Wisconsin Herd. Today acquired the 33-year-old’s G League rights alongside a 2026 second-round (G League) draft pick from the Santa Cruz Warriors for a 2027 first-round pick.
In his day, Oladipo was
a dependable two-way guard, averaging 15+ PPG each year from 2014–19 as he came up with the Magic and Thunder before being shipped to the Pacers in the Paul George deal. It was in his first season with Indiana where the 2013 second overall pick (hey, Orlando missed on Giannis, but at least it wasn’t Anthony Bennett) looked the part of a legit star, making the first of back-to-back All-Star teams as well as First Team All-Defense and Third Team All-NBA, in addition to the aforementioned MIP. That was to be his peak, though, as the following year he appeared in just 36 games while dealing with knee injuries, which began to dog him just a few weeks into the 2018–19 season. A right quad tendon surgery in January 2019 kept him out for over a calendar year, then the pandemic interrupted his comeback the following season.
From those halcyon Pacers days, Oladipo played a mere 102 contests between 2019 and 2023. Indiana traded him to Houston in the January 2021 James Harden deal, but turned down a two-year max extension with the rebuilding team. He probably wishes he could take that back; he was traded about two months later to Miami, where he played just four games before he needed another right quad tendon surgery, necessitating a vet minimum deal in the offseason, and couldn’t play again until March 2022. After missing 73% of the prior two seasons, he got into 42 with the Heat in 2022–23, but as Bucks fans might recall, he tore his patellar tendon in his left knee in Game 3 of their first-round series. That was his most recent NBA action.
Oladipo’s expiring contract was then traded three times as he recovered, including back to OKC (who drafted him), once more to Houston in a deal for current Buck Kevin Porter Jr., and finally to Memphis, who waived him. He then worked for ESPN as an analyst last season before signing with the Guangzhou Loong Lions this year, and even scored 24 in a preseason game against the Clippers last month. The former Indiana Hoosier now returns stateside as he looks to make his comeback. The Herd tipped off their season last night with a loss to the Windy City Bulls, but we’ll see if Oladipo is in uniform for them for their Tuesday home opener.
