The Miami Heat opened the upcoming season, of sorts, on Monday. Well, every team did with the NBA’s annual Media Day taking place.
With that, comes the hopes and potential of the new season. This is the first time that most get to see new parts and returning members of their favorite teams wearing their new digs or back in their uniform for the first time in months or ever.
This is also a time to start to gain a bit of clarity on situations from the offseason, the previous season, or long-running scenarios. In the particular case in question today, it fits all three of those parameters.
That would be Victor Oladipo and his status. While Oladipo did play a few games for the Miami Heat on last season, he would go down shortly after joining them with a lower-leg injury.
The Miami Heat have a chance to be a really special team this year. If Victor Oladipo can get back and stay healthy, those chances double.
Fresh off another operation and a new one year prove it-type deal, Oladipo is back in tow for Miami. Here is what he had to say about it all, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
Victor Oladipo said he doesn't know when he will play this season but is in good spirits. The feeling is that the knee was fixed this time. He said it feels a lot better & he wants to be here longterm. More to come, as I juggle Fins and Heat interviews simultaneously.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) September 27, 2021
The above report is all good news. Though Oladipo doesn’t know when he will play, there has been hints out there and reports as well, that indicate that he could be back prior to the All-Star Break, but definitely by then.
There are other good tidbits in there too. With the thought now being that his knee wasn’t properly repaired the first time around, it’s good to see that he feels like it was on this time.
That isn’t the biggest of the news though, as a sentence near the end of the report is the one that is the biggest revelation. He wants to be in Miami beyond this season… is the only proper assumption.
Well, it isn’t at all, as he said that. If Victor Oladipo can return to, at least, 70 percent of himself and anytime before or right at the All-Star Break, that puts the Miami Heat way over the top and right there at the tip-top of the East.
That would put them, squarely, in the room with both Milwaukee and Brooklyn. That also puts them right there at the top of the pile, among the very best teams in the league.
With that, it’s great the he feels good about his health and longterm future with the club. That can only mean good things, in totality, for the Miami Heat.