For the next few weeks PBT will be profiling likely first-round draft picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. Today we talk about Indiana’s wingman.
ESPN’s well connected Chad Ford put it this simply in a chat Wednesday: “Oladipo is the guy that GMs love in this draft.”
Victor Oladipo was one of those guys with all the athletic gifts you could imagine to temp scouts but he never could put it all together… until this year. When he started to show some really offensive game to go with his defense suddenly scouts were both impressed and thinking his ceiling is even higher.
He has the size — 6’4” with a 6’9” wingspan — and skills to be an elite NBA defender on the wing. At Indiana he was disruptive, getting his hands on balls and deflecting passes. Do that and scouts will have interest. But Oladipo also shot 44.1 percent from three last season and showed some real offensive skills, and that changed things. Suddenly teams were thinking he could be a young Tony Allen type, with more offense.
So he is shooting up draft boards.
STRENGTHS
It’s a good thing when you combine crazy athleticism with a great motor. We’ve already talked about defense, and that’s important, we’ll get to that again. But his athleticism makes him very dangerous in transition.
But his offense is more than just that — he shot a ridiculous 59.9 percent last season. Oladipo is an aggressive, hungry scorer who attacks the rim and moves well off the ball (something you don’t see every day from stars in college ball). What may most impress teams is guys that get better on offense tend to have a good work ethic, a good sign for adjusting to the NBA.
But what really interests teams is his defense — in college he was a lock-down defender and that could continue in the NBA. His physicality and quickness lets him guard the two and the three.
WEAKNESSES
There are questions. He can guard the two in the NBA, but can he really cover threes? Also, he has had some issues with turnovers.
But the big questions come back to the offensive end. He shot a high percentage but the question is can that improvement curve continue. In addition, this is not a guy who can create his own shot — he needs to play with a strong guard (or three) who can handle the rock.
There are other concerns, but his effort on the court and work ethic off it largely offset those.
WHAT DOES DAUSTER THINK?
We don’t get to watch as much of these guys as college writers do, so we turn to Rob Dauster of NBC’s CollegeBasketballTalk.com.
There was not a more improved player in the country this past season than Victor Oladipo. He managed to transform himself from an afterthought in the preseason, a guy known for nothing more than his ability to jump and his ability to defend, into arguably the best all-around player in the country. He was a first-team all-american, and rightfully so. In addition to being a highlight reel in-the-making and the best on-ball defender in the country, Oladipo was no longer a liability offensively. He was able to put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, and he turned himself into a good enough shooter that he hit 44.1% from three, although he took less than two-per-game.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Oladipo’s game is that he played his best in the biggest games of the year. If you only watched Indiana play the likes of Michigan and Michigan State, you would be surprised that Oladipo only averaged 13.6 points this season. He was willing to defer to the other talents on Indiana’s roster, but he was capable of taking over when needed. He’s also an incredibly hardworker, which leads you to believe that his development is far from finished.
I’m not sure that Oladipo is ever going to be a real threat on the offensive end of the floor, but he’s the same kind of competitor and defender as a guy like Tony Allen. It’s important to remember that Allen averaged 16.0 points as a senior at Oklahoma State and was named the Big 12 Player of the Year; he wasn’t always just a defender. In an ideal world, Oladipo would have that kind of a career.
WHERE DOES HE GET DRAFTED?
In the top five. There is some buzz the Cavaliers could take him in the No. 1 spot, but Draft Express has him at No 4 and that seems a more likely landing spot.