Miami Heat: Will The Addition Of Victor Oladipo Help Or Hurt Them?
By Noah Decker
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Before jumping to any drastic measures, let’s not forget the circumstances surrounding the signing of Victor Oladipo this offseason. At his peak, Oladipo was a legitimate All-Star, who led the Indiana Pacers to a seven-game playoff series against LeBron James and his Cavaliers in 2018.
Pros
After playing only a few games with Miami during the 2020-21 season, Oladipo sat out for the remainder of the season due to injury.
He worked hard this offseason to recover from this injury, but there is still some doubt that he could ever return to his peak form. The Miami Heat clearly have a talented roster.
They are a top-three team in the East without Oladipo. They don’t necessarily need him to be the elite player he was a few years ago.
However, if he were to return to that form, the benefits would be tremendous for the Heat.
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It would give them another star to go along with Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo (you can also count Tyler Herro, who is a rising star).
The Miami Heat signed Oladipo on a one-year deal for the minimum. They aren’t risking anything, financially, by taking a gamble on him.
In fact, the overall risk is negligible. The reward could be something incredible, even if he fails to play at a level close to his peak.
In addition to adding another effective scorer off the bench to go along with Tyler Herro, the Heat get an excellent perimeter defender. The Heat have been one of the very top teams defensively, but if there was one area they could improve, it would be their perimeter defense.
Sometimes, they give up too many three pointers to good shooters. Oladipo can help with that.
Another key use for Oladipo on that side of the ball would be to play in the defensive lineup. This is the lineup the Heat would go to when they need a stop, which will typically happen in late game situations when the score is close.
The Heat could conceivably play Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Victor Oladipo, P.J. Tucker, and Bam Adebayo and all at the same time. All are excellent defenders.
All are able to guard multiple positions. The Heat could switch on screens and still feel comfortable with any potential matchup.
This gives them a huge advantage in late games. There is no one player in that lineup that the opposing offense can attack to score.
They will have to truly earn their basket.