Former two-time Indiana Pacers All-Star shooting guard Victor Oladipo hasn’t ever recovered his prime form since undergoing a series of knee injuries which, to be fair, makes plenty of sense when you think about it.
But that doesn’t mean Oladipo doesn’t still hold value to an NBA franchise — just not to the level of his current, fully-guaranteed $9.5 million contract for the 2023-24 season. The 6’4″ IU product struggled through injuries last season with the Miami Heat, after re-signing with the club on an extremely generous-for-this-stage-in-his-career two-year deal in the summer of 2022. The aforementioned $9.5 million deal for this season was a player option, which Oladipo hastily picked up, knowing full well that he wouldn’t net more than probably a veteran’s minimum deal on the open market.
Now, after having been shipped out twice during the offseason as a trade throw-in (first from the Heat to the Oklahoma City Thunder, now to the Houston Rockets), it seems Oladipo could quite possibly be on the move again. This time, he’d most likely need help from the Thunder, as OKC is clearly comfortable absorbing his money and adding some draft picks to facilitate another spot, per Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report.
As Bailey notes, a rebuilding Houston club could opt to hold onto Oladipo’s money (now in his second tour of duty with the Rockets) for possible use in a trade later in the season, could look to flip him now in such a deal (albeit with fewer options than it will have after December 15th), or alternately could choose to simple waive him.
Would he be an interesting fit on your Los Angeles Lakers? Yes. He’s a solid perimeter defender even well past his athletic prime, but his Pacers-era offense has fallen off a cliff, meaning he’d strictly be a change-of-pace bench piece on a contending Lakers team. He’s not worth his current deal, so Los Angeles should under no circumstances trade for him, and even if the team wants to sign him to a minimum deal (assuming he is waived instead of traded elsewhere, in this scenario), there may be higher-upside options on which the Lakers could take flyers instead.
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