You Can't Always Get What You Want (But You Should Beware If You Do): Tracking Victor Oladipo's Career from Start to Present

You Can't Always Get What You Want (But You Should Beware If You Do): Tracking Victor Oladipo's Career from Start to Present

By: Dan Primiani

Former Pacer's star guard, Victor Oladipo, will be taking his talents to Houston for the foreseeable future.

    In 1969, Rolling Stone's front man, Mick Jagger, once crooned, "You can't always get what you want." Well, for former Indiana Pacer Victor Oladipo, the intrepid star certainly got what he wanted this past Thursday: a move out of Indiana, the city with whom he developed into a legitimate NBA All-Star after being traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder on July 6th, 2017. Oladipo's exit from the Pacers comes as part of a league-altering four-team trade with James Harden headlining the transaction on his way to Brooklyn and it comes on the heels of a prolonged dispute about his worth in Indiana. It's not difficult to imagine that the Pacers were more than happy to move on from Oladipo at this point given some of the distractions he's presented off-the-court over the past year or so (despite conflicting media reports). What career implications will this move hold for the talented guard? That remains to be seen.

    Coming out of the University of Indiana in 2013, Oladipo entered the league on the heels of a fantastic three-year stretch in Bloomington with a plethora of accolades to his name (including co-Defensive Player of the Year and a first team All-American designation). Concordantly, the young guard would be drafted second overall in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic and he'd finish his rookie season with a second place finish to Michael Carter-Williams for Rookie of the Year. Needless to say, the future certainly looked bright for Oladipo and the Magic and it seemed like Orlando had a burgeoning young star to build around as they endeavored to make progress in their organizational rebuild.

    Oladipo's three-year stint in Orlando would be marred by injuries, however, as he suffered a facial fracture early in his sophomore season and a concussion that prematurely ended his third and final season with the Magic. On June 23rd, 2016, Oladipo was shipped off to Oklahoma City alongside Ersan Ilyasova and the draft rights to Domantas Sabonis in exchange for Serge Ibaka. The jump from cellar-dweller Orlando to a Russell Westbrook-led OKC must've been nice for the former Hoosier and Oladipo would get his first taste of playoff basketball, ironically enough, against the James Harden-led Houston Rockets. Once again, however, nagging injuries were a defining characteristic of Oladipo's season in Oklahoma City as he suffered a wrist injury and back spasms throughout the season. When he was healthy enough to take the court, though, Oladipo's play justified a four-year, $84 million contract extension as he continued displaying an all-around solid skillset.

    Oladipo would be on the move again after his lone season in OKC as he served as a trade chip in a deal that brought Paul George to the Thunder. In his first year in Indiana, Oladipo blossomed into an All-Star, averaging 23.1 points-per-game, whilst also chipping in 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and a league leading 2.4 steals per contest. Following the season, Oladipo was named the league's Most Improved Player and he looked poised to continue his growth going into the 2018-2019 season. The trajectory of his career would be stymied, however, by a catastrophic knee injury that would cost him the rest of the 2018 season and the majority of the 2019 season. It's here the Oladipo's relationship with the Pacers began to devolve. 

    In some ways, it's hard to blame Oladipo for the way things transpired. Oladipo's recovery from his leg injury was largely held away from the team during the COVID-19 pandemic and, thusly, while he and his teammates maintain that there was no friction their relationship, you have to imagine that some distance began forming with the guard's time away from the team. Much of Oladipo's recovery from his injury was initially covered by Shams Charania, an independent sports reporter from the Athletic. You have to imagine it would've felt odd to be one of Oladipo's teammates and to be hearing about his progress back from injury not from the star himself, but over Twitter and ESPN. Undoubtedly, that's an odd dynamic to have in the locker room. Then again, Oladipo hardly helped himself as he reportedly was openly asking opposing players to have their teams acquire him via trade (in front of his own teammates, nonetheless). Combined with the fact that Oladipo will most certainly be seeking a sizeable contract in free agency with his current deal set to expire at the conclusion of the 2020-2021 season and that the Pacers and Oladipo were engaged in a dispute over the payout of the remainder of his 2020 contract amid the Coronavirus shutdown, it became clear that his days in Indiana were limited.

Time will tell how Victor Oladipo fits in with former University of Kentucky standouts John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

    So, here we are. Oladipo was shipped off to Houston in a carousel of players with former-Brooklyn Net Caris LaVert heading off to Indiana. Once again, Oladipo is on a team that looks to be in a bit of a rebuild with the departure of James Harden (though, the Rockets still feature a deep pool of veterans to call on). In all likelihood, Oladipo will most likely be on the move by the NBA trade deadline seeing as he will be entering free agency in the off-season. Perhaps the Rockets can lure him to stay, however, if they can find a way to complement Oladipo's play style with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and company. It's an odd situation for the organization to be in; they're coming off a season in which they went 44-28 before being ousted by the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Semi-Finals, yet nobody could've possibly felt good about the direction of the organization. It as clear that the Russell Westbrook-James Harden reunion was not to be and the two star players just couldn't get on the same page last season. Perhaps Victor Oladipo will help bring out the best in his new teammates. He certainly won't dominate the ball/shot possession like the man he's replacing in James Harden (though, it will certainly be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate what Harden brings to any team). Nevertheless, Oladipo now has what he wants: a fresh opportunity to be the face of the franchise. Whereas in Indiana Oladipo functioned as part of a well-oiled machine that didn't necessarily promote one player to be the alpha, he'll certainly function as such as the youngest and brightest star on the Houston Rockets (despite the continued presences of Wall and Cousins). Only time will tell whether this experiment will be short lived or if perhaps Oladipo can establish himself as a marquee player for the Rockets and settle in for a more lengthy stay in one city.

Images courtesy of ESPN.com.