Indiana Pacers: 3 players facing most pressure in 2019-20

Will Oladipo be the same when he comes back?

Victor Oladipo suffered the kind of injury that ends careers when he ruptured his quadriceps tendon in a game against the Toronto Raptors and in the process put the kibosh on the Indiana Pacers’ dark-horse title hopes last season.

That’s the injury that ended Charles Barkley‘s career. It’s the injury that turned Tony Parker into a shell of his former self and left him washed when he tried to come back from it. It’s one of the injuries that DeMarcus Cousins suffered as he looks like he might be cooked as an effective force.

Before the injury, Oladipo was one of the most clutch players in the league. In the last five minutes of regulation or overtime, Oladipo was 12-of-17 on shots to tie or take the lead.

That 70.6 percent mark tied him with Thomas Bryant and Giannis Antetokounmpo for third in the league out of the 109 players who took at least 10 such shots.

Only Andre Drummond (11-of-15, 73.3 percent) and Willie Cauley-Stein (8-of-11, 72.7 percent) were better and they had fewer attempts.

Wesley Matthews, who largely took that role over from Oladipo after the injury and Matthews’ arrival in Indiana, was 3-of-11 (27.3 percent.) That’s 100th on that same list.

The Pacers need a guy who’s like the closer in baseball. They were lethal in close games when they could give Oladipo the ball down the stretch and terrible when they no longer had that option.

If Oladipo can’t come back and give the team fresh legs even in the fourth quarter with the game on the line, not only the Pacers’ season but Oladipo’s career might be on life support with the prognosis as “pull the plug.”