The Indiana Pacers' three most recent eras have been defined by pace, as their name should imply. Between Paul George, Victor Oladipo, and Tyrese Haliburton, their stars have always been players who found freedom in speed on the fast break. They've been oh so different, but at the same time so similar.
Paul George got his co-star in the form of a near Defensive Player of the Year, Roy Hibbert (real ones know), alongside a roster that was one of the few teams in the East to compete with a prime LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
Tyrese Haliburton's story is still unwritten, but he, too, has the talent surrounding him to push for a title. Pascal Siakam is an All-Star. Ivica Zubac is not far behind him. The rotation of role players complement and better the strengths of the teams, the strengths of the very star whom they all follow.
Conversely, Victor Oladipo was alone. Sure, he had decent role players surrounding him, longtime Pacers like Myles Turner and Darren Collison. Fellow Paul George trade piece Domantas Sabonis began to break out. Bojan Bogdanovic had what is likely his career-best year.
But Oladipo was expected to carry a massive load, one that eventually spelled the end of an era. In an era that saw big threes and superteams, Oladipo instead had a handful of decent specialists and the entirety of the team's offensive load on the shoulders.
In a way, he never got a team built around him. Injuries completely derailed his career and left him a free agent at 34, when he was the Most Improved Player and a member of the third team All-NBA just seven years ago.
Oladipo is mounting a comeback attempt now, and the Pacers should take a glance, but any return would just be bittersweet.
The version of Victor we would see alongside Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam would be the depreciated, aged, and washed version. We deserved to see him with this core as he was in his prime.
Because the fit is absolutely perfect.
Victor Oladipo was the perfect star for this core
The most crushing part of this story is that this what-if is truly the future all of us should have gotten. Oladipo dealt with devastating injury after devastating injury at a near-unprecedented rate. An absolute iron man for years on end, it was in 2019 that Victor started his downward spiral.
That playoff run that crumbled to dust against the eventual champion Boston Celtics, in which Jaylen Brown made clutch shot after clutch shot? Imagine if Oladipo was there to hit clutch threes and to attack closeouts off of Haliburton pocket passes.
The Finals series against the OKC Thunder, where Haliburton's Achilles tendon gave out because of the massive load he was carrying? What if the breaks Tyrese can take are longer, with more than just TJ McConnell to take his place?
The ideal version of Oladipo was always a second or third option on an excellent team, a scorer and defender who could make important shots and guard the opposing team's best player. Think of Khris Middleton, of Klay Thompson, of any of the wings that do so much more than just scoring, but can score nonetheless.
Victor was all of that. One could argue that he wouldn't have enjoyed moving down the hierarchy of the team he once led, but the truth remains. Right now, his archetype is exactly what the Pacers need.
It's a real shame we never got it. And a real shame that Oladipo never lived it either.
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