New Orleans Pelicans: 2 Stars who’d become the team’s Jimmy Butler

Adding Victor Oladpio to the New Orleans Pelicans is dangerous if he recaptures his 2018 form

Victor Oladpio- Indiana Pacers

Here’s a target who’s a little risky but a lot more realistic, Victor Oladpio. The other day, The Atheltic’s Jared Weiss reported that Oladpio was “looking to move on” from the Indiana Pacers this offseason and I think he’d be an interesting addition to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Oladipo is such an interesting candidate for the New Orleans Pelicans because he’s still an unknown. In 2018, Oldapio joined the Pacers and averaged 23 points and 4 assists per game. The thinking then was that Oladipo was about to erupt into stardom.

After suffering a devastating injury quad injury in 2019 though, there are a lot of questions about Oladipo’s future and if he’ll ever become the two-way star people thought he would. I think he can recapture that form and that’s why I’m writing about him now.

Like Butler and Beal who I mentioned, Oladipo is a late bloomer and I think there’s still some growth left in his game. Before his injury in 2019, the NBA started to see Oladpio become a playmaker and take advantage of defensive attention to give his teammates open shots.

What I thought was also interesting was early in 2019, Oladpio looked comfortable with the Pacers. With that comfort, Oladipo started becoming a vocal leader for the team. That’s why I think the risk is worth it for the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Pelicans can acquire Oladipo and instill that role back in him by telling him that he’s the veteran player and that they need him to lead this young core to the next level. It is a risky move but if executed properly, the New Orleans Pelicans could find themselves with a reinvigorated star to take them to the next level.

Now of course the New Orleans Pelicans might not go in this direction and there’s plenty of questions about how trades for these players would look and how they’d fit with the team. It’s an interesting debate worth having though. Do the New Orleans Pelicans want to continue to build slowly with some of the risks already on their roster or do they want to push their chips all-in to go a run?