Watching Oladipo Blow Up = Depressing

[fateis007]

I loved Oladipo. His style of play was aggresive and when he had that monster game against the Knicks in double overtime and took over, I knew he was going to be a star.

Watching him drop 30/8/9/6 tonight against Knicks again, average 24/5/5 for the year, become an all star, and be the #1 option on a playoff team, really just makes me not want to watch the Magic anymore.

I have been a fan for 25 years now and this one just hurts as much as losing Shaq (obviously the big diesal was worse, as he was a once in a lifetime talent)

Here we stand with no chance at the playoffs. What a train wreck.

Watch on YouTube

[tiderulz]

he was chubby here, couldnt finish at the rim and didnt seem to want to be the #1 option. He learned from his year with Russell on what it takes, not sure he would be what he is now with the mindset if he had stayed. its going on 2 years, might as well let it go

[fendilim]

Does it hurt? Yes. But he is a totally different player now. And i was assured when he said he wouldnt be playing this way if he didnt spend that one yr in okc. Even tom creane said oladipo changed a lot of his preparations last offseason compres to previous years. Even hiring a personal chef.

[Tayswagzzz]

Oladipo always had that “IT” factor IMO. He was known for a really hard work ethic...heck I even know a guy who trained him, same guy helped train Jonathan Isaac before he chose a college (he’s really optimistic about Isaacs future btw). He said Oladipo worked hard as hell in training.

It is depressing, but like tiderulz said, maybe Westbrook mentoring him had to do with the extra elevation. Idk. I wasn’t for trading him at all...what’s done is done though. Oladipo’s rise to stardom will haunt us, and it’s inevitable that fans will continue to look back on what could have been.

I just want to point out that it looked like at least half of not more of this board was actively looking at ways to deal him cause of “fit” and not wanting to pay him near the max or the max in favor of Fournier.

I’ll never forget the night I heard about the news of Oladipo being traded...I was bowling with friends...checked my phone and saw the news...couldn’t believe it, we all were shocked. The consensus was, “wtf are the magic doing?” Then we tried to talk ourselves into why or how Ibaka could work, and it was really only going to work IF Gordon was the future 3 and could have a breakout year...which didn’t work out.

In the end, yeah, it blows. The Magic have made crappy moves, dark times are upon us, but we need to focus on the future and nailing this draft, retain Hezonja, continue developing Gordon into a star, and get Jonathan Isaac healthy and let him figure out what kind of player he is because the sky is the limit for him IMO.

[Skin]

That's because we are building for 2030.

[SHAQ32]

Think we chose fit over talent.

You could say we didn't choose wisely.

[woosah]

he was chubby here, couldnt finish at the rim and didnt seem to want to be the #1 option. He learned from his year with Russell on what it takes, not sure he would be what he is now with the mindset if he had stayed. its going on 2 years, might as well let it go

You don't think so? I didn't see that. Why do you say so?

[bargnanimvp]

He wouldn't be this player if he were here imo, the fit was bad and our roster was a mess, he seemed more content with where he was and needed a change of scenery to reach his potential. Moving him made sense to me, we had payton under contract who also couldn't shoot, we had Evan who could shoot and seemed a more versatile fit going forward. Sucks seeing him break out but I don't look at it as a hindsight thing because at the time a large portion of orlando fans wanted him moved. We should have gotten more in that deal though or at the very least not given up our pick.

[bargnanimvp]

People are also forgetting that OKC got made fun of by a lot of people for how much they were on the hook to pay dipo

[DiplomaticMagic]

Funny you mention that Knicks game, I too remember that game and said Oladipo was going to be special.

[Jstock12]

People are also forgetting that OKC got made fun of by a lot of people for how much they were on the hook to pay dipo

Oladipo is now one of the best value contracts in the league. Indiana has a two-way star (there are so few of those in the league) locked up for 3 more years after this season for significantly less than a max deal.

[SOUL]

Fans in general (but especially on this board) undersell how much players games can change from year to year just by diet, practice, learning the NBA, growing up, etc. We give up on tons of these dudes before their primes and then we're always like "welp, they couldn't have done that here!" or are surprised when they become different players altogether.

It's as big as people doubting Oladipo would become anything but a role player, or even as small as Dedmon adding a 3 point shot to his game. I hate reading proclamations of how Elfrid would never become a good shooter, how Isaac will never be able to play center, Mario never being NBA talent, how Gordon can't play SF ever again (even though he's 10x the PF right now).

We simply don't foster that sort of environment to fully grow with the management and coaching we've had the past 4-5 years.

[JF5]

Funny you mention that Knicks game, I too remember that game and said Oladipo was going to be special.

That game this game...

Watch on YouTube

And this one

Watch on YouTube

For me he just always had it... I remember at the beginning of his rookie year I criticized the hell out of him and then he just completely improved into being a triple threat/facilitating player once that season ended. The way he was able to make that transformation and make such an improvement within a span of months gave me high hopes that he'd continue to improve. Unfortunately he stagnated the next two seasons but it seemed that he still had the ability to eventually break through with those performances he had during that span. Now look where he is.

I'm proud to see the guy grow and become the star player I knew he could be.

[pepe1991]

Don't trade off 3rd year player who is having "bad" season averaging 16-5-4 at age of 23 on good defense and solid efficiency for one year rental at age of 27 and who was, at best, 4th best player on great team is moral of a story i guess.

[pepe1991]

Funny you mention that Knicks game, I too remember that game and said Oladipo was going to be special.

That game this game...

Watch on YouTube

And this one

Watch on YouTube

For me he just always had it... I remember at the beginning of his rookie year I criticized the hell out of him and then he just completely improved into being a triple threat/facilitating player once that season ended. The way he was able to make that transformation and make such an improvement within a span of months gave me high hopes that he'd continue to improve. Unfortunately he stagnated the next two seasons but it seemed that he still had the ability to eventually break through with those performances he had during that span. Now look where he is.

I'm proud to see the guy grow and become the star player I knew he could be.

he has so much more lift in his legs now

[DiplomaticMagic]

Funny you mention that Knicks game, I too remember that game and said Oladipo was going to be special.

That game this game...

Watch on YouTube

And this one

Watch on YouTube

For me he just always had it... I remember at the beginning of his rookie year I criticized the hell out of him and then he just completely improved into being a triple threat/facilitating player once that season ended. The way he was able to make that transformation and make such an improvement within a span of months gave me high hopes that he'd continue to improve. Unfortunately he stagnated the next two seasons but it seemed that he still had the ability to eventually break through with those performances he had during that span. Now look where he is.

I'm proud to see the guy grow and become the star player I knew he could be.

That Rockets game was probably my favorite game since the Dwight era. EP was crossing guys left and right, scoring at will in 4th, Vuc had a few stops vs Dwight who was bullying him with no fouls called and Oladipo had that game sealing 360. Great game!! I saw a future in that game

[woosah]

Fans in general (but especially on this board) undersell how much players games can change from year to year just by diet, practice, learning the NBA, growing up, etc. We give up on tons of these dudes before their primes and then we're always like "welp, they couldn't have done that here!" or are surprised when they become different players altogether.

It's as big as people doubting Oladipo would become anything but a role player, or even as small as Dedmon adding a 3 point shot to his game. I hate reading proclamations of how Elfrid would never become a good shooter, how Isaac will never be able to play center, Mario never being NBA talent, how Gordon can't play SF ever again (even though he's 10x the PF right now).

We simply don't foster that sort of environment to fully grow with the management and coaching we've had the past 4-5 years.

Sigh. Skiles killed it if you ask me. He killed Elf's growing confidence, featured Evan over Vic and hated Tobias. Pitted everyone against each other (including FO) and then walked away.

[Statlanta]

People are also forgetting that OKC got made fun of by a lot of people for how much they were on the hook to pay dipo

Underrated comment.

Nobody on the GB will ever own up to the fact that most posters and basketball minds ridiculed OKC to no end for extending him to that contract.

It's just sad that he needed a change of scenery to be better. Even worse we traded the guy who contributed to the reason we traded him(Elf).

It hurts but I've moved on. The ceiling of the old team probably wouldn't be any higher than a team like the Pacers(mid-round playoff team).

[Last Guardian]

It would have happened here. He had the ball a lot and he was our #1 option. Trading Fournier and/or Vuc would have opened up his role on offense.

Payton 19pts 9asts his first game with Suns.

This franchise....maybe we'll be good by 2025. We'll be in Mars before the Magic make the playoffs

[I Rasharted]

Never thought I'd see Oladipo break out quite like this. Part of me thinks this season is an outlier for him and he'll return to form soon enough, but we shall see. Happy for him regardless.