Well This Sucks

Well that seems rather unfortunate. Oladipo had been out since November 17th with this knee issue, and really he only played 5 minutes in that game and it doesn’t look like he’ll be back to playing anytime soon. The Pacers have treaded water without him and gone 4-3, but there’s no way going long stretches missing your best player and best shot creator is ideal. I mean they didn’t even attempt to give a timeline here. An update will be provided “when warranted”….yeesh.

After a breakout season last year, I’d say Oladipo has been like 75-80% of that same player this year. He’s averaging fewer points at 21.6, but more rebounds at 6.6 which is a nice jump from the 5.2 of last year. The one thing he hasn’t done as well is shoot. His efficiency is down slightly to 44/34% splits, and he was shooting 40/29% so far in November before going down. He still had his fair share of signature moments

and at 13-9 just 1.5 games back of a top 3 seed in the East, this is coming at a pretty brutal time. Moving forward, this now puts pressure on their guard depth. This was supposed to be a strength heading into the season, but Tyreke Evans hasn’t really lived up to his deal (which was probably his biggest question of if last year was for real), and while Collison/Holiday have been solid, this will also mean they probably need more from Corey Joseph as well. It’s not just the guards either, now it’s time for Myles Turner to show he’s actually worth that $80M extension. You ask Pacers fans and I bet they prefer Sabonis to be getting Turner’s minutes, but now that he’s going to have to pick up for Oladipo’s absence, he can’t continue to mostly be a non factor.

Hopefully, Oladipo won’t undergo season ending surgery or anything that serious. Best case the Pacers stay competitive in the East in that 4-5 range without him, and then he’s good to go by the playoffs, because we saw last year what a force he can be.

The Injury Gods suck, and snake biting Oladipo is a tough break.