Per a report from The Athletic’s Jared Weiss, Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo is “looking to move on” this offseason. That means a trade, and that won’t be easy.
On Monday afternoon while the NBA world was transfixed on the virtual Zoom interview process of prospective draft picks like LaMelo Ball and Killian Hayes, a snippet buried in The Athletic’s Jared Weiss’s piece recapping the Boston Celtics loss (paywall) to the Miami Heat emerged regarding Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers: Oladipo wants out this offseason.
None of the news coming out of Indianapolis has been good since the Pacers extended head coach Nate McMillan before the NBA playoffs began. Just a matter of days later after the Pacers were swept by the Miami Heat (who are the Eastern Conference champions now, incidentally), the Pacers reversed course and fired McMillan, and now their two-time All-Star wants out of Dodge.
Oladipo is a free agent going into the last year of his contract, and in many cases, a player letting his team (or a reporter) know that he won’t be returning is a form of doing them a solid. It allows the team to take measures to get value from that departing player via trade, or other precautionary and reactionary measures can be taken.
In this situation, however, that may be less the case.
Coming off a ruptured quad suffered in January of 2019, Oladipo struggled mightily at times in his return and was usually a third option in the NBA bubble behind Malcolm Brogdon and the suddenly transcendent T.J. Warren.
The Pacers acquired Oladipo from the OKC Thunder in the first place via trade when their then-superstar Paul George informed them that he would not return, but George was at the height of his powers and finding a deal was easier than this will be. Even in that case, the Pacers had no leverage because the whole NBA was aware that they were desperate to move him and not lose him for nothing in free agency.
This will be the second time the Pacers are left without leverage, but with a $21 million salary in 2020-21, Oladipo won’t be bringing back high-quality offers. He’s almost certainly a negative-value asset at this point, at least until he proves otherwise, and the Indiana Pacers won’t be incentivized to attach sweeteners to any deal involving him just for the purposes of acquiescing to his desires.
It’s safe to say that there is a deal out there to be made if both parties want it bad enough, but Victor Oladipo might have some work to do in order to make it worth a receiving team’s time and assets at this point.