Pacers player grades: All-Star break edition
By William Furr
Victor Oladipo: Incomplete
Pertinent Stats:
19 points, 42% shooting, 34% 3 point shooting, 73% free throw shooting, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 36 games played
Losing Oladipo for the season probably relegated the Pacers from “legitimate threat” in the East to “tough first-round opponent”. The Pacers are certainly capable of winning games without him (as they’ve shown), and that’s a credit to the team and talent surrounding him, but without “the guy”, it’s hard to go far in the postseason.
However, there might be a positive silver lining or two to draw from this. Victor Oladipo had secretly been having a really poor year overall (compared to expectations), closely mirroring his averages from his sophomore season in Orlando. Vic missed 11 games earlier in the year before the tendon injury, and it seems likely (though unconfirmed) that the earlier missed time and the serious injury were related.
Oladipo repeatedly said he was healthy and chose to play throughout the season, but some interesting comments from Tyreke Evans about the 2 discussing playing through pain surfaced recently. If Oladipo was dealing with some tendonitis throughout the year, that would certainly explain a bit of his lost explosiveness, as well as some of the shooting woes. A major injury is never a positive thing, but there’s a reason to hope that some positivity will arise from this in the end. Until then, here’s hoping Vic stays feathery and heals well.
Next. The Indiana Pacers are underrepresented at All-Star weekend. dark
The Indiana Pacers have once again exceeded expectations already. While most analysts expect them to fall off precipitously as the season wears on, the machine keeps turning and they keep beating the teams they’re supposed to.
Nate McMillan has been yet another Pacer employee getting some award mentions, and he’s hovered around in the coach of the year conversation. Mike Budenholzer will almost certainly win it, but Nate’s inclusion is indicative of the job he and his team have done this year. With just 24 games left in the season, here’s hoping Nate’s bag of tricks isn’t empty and he can help navigate the Indiana Pacers into a favorable first-round matchup.