Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis are thriving with the Indiana Pacers

Since joining the Indiana Pacers, Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis are great examples of why fit and role matter so much in the NBA.

It isn’t the phenomenon of Linsanity, but through 38 games, we’re seeing how Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis are settling in with the Indiana Pacers in a way few expected. Just as we learned from Jeremy Lin, we’re seeing that players put in the right situations (and given opportunities) can maximize their abilities.

Since joining the Pacers, Victor and Domas are averaging a combined 15.1 more points, 5.4 more rebounds, and 2.5 more assists a game than they did with the Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s an entire other player worth of stats between them.

An All-Star appearance for Oladipo will make it easy for Kevin Pritchard to say he Pritch Slapped another GM once again — especially if the Thunder flame out and Paul George leaves for Los Angeles in the summer. The Pritch slap would become a Pritch punch if Sabonis becomes more than just the extremely solid backup center he is now.

But no matter what the future is for all of them, Oladipo and Sabonis look nothing like they did in the past. And of course, as soon as both started showing what they were capable of, a question emerged.

Did Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder organization hinder the duo’s development?

If you read The Ringer’s Jason Concepcion, then Oladipo and Sabonis should be celebrating their freedom.

"Since leaving OKC, James Harden has become a perennial MVP candidate, and Kevin Durant has become an NBA champion. This past summer, the Thunder traded Victor Oladipo, the no. 2 pick in the 2013 draft, and second-year big man Domantas Sabonis to the Indiana Pacers for Paul George. Freed from the restrictive roles OKC’s team structure demanded of them — a corner-3 floor spacer for Sabonis and a stand-still perimeter shooter for Oladipo — both are having career seasons.Head into 2018 with a spirit of liberation."

While it’s worth noting, as Zach Cram (also of the Ringer) did in his post on the Westbrook Effect that both Oladipo and Sabonis were likely to improve this season, the overall data shows a number of players have improved once they left Oklahoma City, and others thrived.

Kevin Durant wasn’t exactly slowed by Westbrook, but now he has a title. James Harden might win the MVP award. Dion Waiters got his own island. There are several others, but those are obviously the headliners in the “Better Off Without You” tour.

The Pacers are looking to add two more acts to that.

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Oklahoma City made Sabonis a stretch four when (even though) his skill set is that of a center. He struggled to score or make a significant impact with the Thunder as he played out of position. We’ve watched in Indiana as Sabonis plays in the paint like a player much heftier than his 6’11”, 240-pound frame might lead you to believe. He doesn’t stretch the floor — he grinds you down.

While Oladipo was playing in the right position in Oklahoma City, he wasn’t in the right role, either. He stood around and shot the ball, but ineffectively. He’s shooting more 3-pointers in Indiana, but now he is raining them down at 42%. Oladipo is meant to move and make plays, not wait for them to come his way.

They had to play that way to fit in with Russell Westbrook, who the Thunder now locked up for another five years. Perhaps that’s all they really needed out of last season, and stifling the development of two of their players was worth the cost.

It’s also fair to say Oladipo’s resurgence wasn’t expected by anyone, nor should we have expected Sabonis to become this well polished in his second season in the pros. Many lauded Presti for getting rid of Oladipo’s contact, a $21 million a year deal that extends into the 2020 season. Even if Paul George and Carmelo Anthony leave as soon as they can, the worst case scenario for the Thunder is freeing up a considerable amount of cap space.

But the way things worked out with Oladipo and Sabonis is another example of the Thunder not getting the most out of their assets.

Oladipo isn’t likely to win the MVP award this season, but he currently is a frontrunner for the most improved player award. The Pacers oversaw four of their players win this award — Paul George, Danny Granger, Jalen Rose, and Jermaine O’Neal — a testament to their player development over the years and their ability to get the most out of their players. That’s over a 20 year period, but that says something about the institutional knowledge of within the organization.

But again, maybe I’m just being too hard on Presti by demanding that they got more out of Oladipo, Sabonis, and other players that came through their locker froom. Even if the Thunder’s ownership spent more money, chances are they couldn’t keep every good-to-great player that came through. There are realities to cap management and how teams are built.

There wasn’t a realistic way to keep Westbrook, Durant, and Harden on the same team. The question is the players that could be surrounding Westbrook to make the team more of a threat in the Western Conference.

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But what does it say if a year from now if only Westbrook and Steven Adams remain after all those players and assets came through? The problem isn’t that they didn’t keep each one of those players. The bigger issue is if Adams is the only asset left as the other moves didn’t end up producing fruit for the Thunder. They sent a number of first-round picks out the door to get players, but now they don’t have as much to show for it if they don’t make another deep run into the conference finals.

The Thunder’s success might be fruit enough from all those moves. It’s hard to call a team with playoff success a failure. But the missed potential of several players questions about if there was more to be had in those various runs, and even the one to come this season. Perhaps that’s just greedy expecting more, but it’s worth asking if they ‘should’ have gotten more.

Often we fall for the idea that there is always a way to a championship. It isn’t a question of if, but only how. Move enough pieces around, and boom, you have a title. Maybe getting the very good playoff team was the best realistic outcome with the cards the dealt to the Thunder.

Regardless of what happens in Oklahoma City, getting out of the shadows of Westbrook allowed Oladipo and Sabonis to grow into better players. Put them in the right situation as the Pacers have, and they can thrive.

The Oladipo-Sabonis trade might have been more of a hostage situation with a happy ending than a great plan that was executed to perfection. Indiana made savvy moves to set up a core, but the Pritchard and the Pacers will ultimately be judged by what they do to build a team from here.

The hard part comes now when the excuses for failure aren’t as easy to find. Maybe a few years from now I’ll be writing about Pritchard’s mistakes and missed chances as I did Presti’s and the Thunder’s.

There are opportunities for the Pacers ahead. Will they get the most out of them? Or will it be easy to say what went wrong as they continue to chase an ever-elusive NBA title?

Next: 8p9s Roundtable: Victor Oladipo will be an All-Star

Hopefully continue to get the most out of their players so they don’t have to wonder if they missed out on a bigger opportunity, even if it only existed on paper.