The HoopsHype Weekly: What impact will Victor Oladipo sitting out have on Indiana?
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NO DIPO, MORE PROBLEMS? Following the announcement yesterday about Victor Oladipo choosing to bypass returning to play this season out of concern about how his formerly injured quad might hold up, one could only wonder what that might mean for the rest of the Pacers’ campaign.
After all, Indiana played a good chunk of this season without Oladipo anyway, so it’s not like they’re unaccustomed to being without their All-Star 2-guard. But at the same time, players at the caliber of Oladipo at the shooting-guard position are extremely hard to come by, so his loss will still be felt in one way or another.
In the 13 games Oladipo played in 2019-20, the former Hoosier averaged 13.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per contest on shaky 39.1/30.4/78.0 shooting splits. As he got his feet under him, the Pacers were actually outscored by 1.6 points per 100 possessions during his time on the floor this season. What’s more, in the 47 games prior to his return, Indiana ranked 12th league-wide in net rating at +2.9, going 30-17 in the process; in the 18 games since his return, that number fell to -0.4 and their record was a mediocre 9-9.
So it’s clear the Pacers fell off a bit once Oladipo came back into the rotation, but their slight drop-off can’t all be attributed to his return. Jeremy Lamb going down with a season-ending ACL injury for the team’s final eight games before the suspension of play certainly did not help matters either, especially when you factor in the solid campaign he was having for Indiana.
Overall, it’s likely the Pacers’ floor didn’t drop off much with the news that Oladipo wouldn’t return in 2019-20, but their ceiling probably won’t be as high as it would have been with him in their starting lineup. Not many teams have guys who can step up and do this when they badly need a bucket late in a game, after all.
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