Thunder Training Camp: The Case for Keeping Victor Oladipo

In what was one of several moves the Oklahoma City Thunder made during the offseason, Victor Oladipo was acquired from the Miami Heat. Oklahoma City was given draft capital to take on his contract, as he became a member of the Thunder via trade for the second time in his career. Oladipo is coming off of yet another significant injury and currently is unable to play, but has a proven track record as a highly impactful guard.

With 18 players currently on the roster, Oklahoma City will need to reduce that number by three over the next few weeks. Oladipo is a name that will be strongly considered to be cut in order to reduce the size of the roster.

“He’s been through a lot,” said Thunder GM Sam Presti last week. “He’ll be back this season at some point. But with our roster situation, we can’t prioritize that. But we’re big fans of Victor.”

Presti would go on to say that Oladipo won’t be with the team at training camp. While this essentially signals that Oladipo is a likely cut candidate, there is a case to be made to keep him on the 15-man roster.

Between three teams in the 2020-21 season, Oladipo averaged 19.8 points along with 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. The past two seasons, he’s produced just 12.4 and 10.7 points per game respectively, but still provides a scoring punch. Now at 31 years old, he’s suffered numerous severe injuries, but could actually be an impactful player still.

Even outside of the on-court production, his contract could prove to be valuable. Oladipo is set to make $9.45 million this season and will hit unrestricted free agency this summer. That could end up being a much needed expiring contract to make a move at the trade deadline. Oklahoma City is thin on that size of contract as it relates to players that the Thunder are willing to trade.

Whether it’s betting on Oladipo coming back and being a rotational piece, or even keeping him around to leverage his expiring contract for a future trade, Oklahoma City should consider him for one of the 15 roster spots this season.