Victor looked like Russell Westbrook tonight

[Orlwillbeback]

15 free throw attempts. High screen and roll everytime and horns. This is our go to with Napier alongside him in the second unit and he dominates with the drive and kick game.

Maybe we should just use this offense full time?

[tooler]

We did last year and teams started keying on it. And Vic ran out of gas.

[MagicManDC]

Russell Westbrook would have finished much better when having the opportunity. Dipo still has issues finishing and shooting.

[OrlandoDream]

Easy now. Despite making him look like prime Dwight, Robin Lopez and Porz, aren't exactly the defending towers into the NBA.

[ezzzp]

5-15 not exactly Westbrook-like...NY is worst fouling team in NBA by far and he was the beneficiary of that tonight - wouldn't expect better teams to bail him out like Knicks did tonight. But his energy off the bench feels right.

[Orlwillbeback]

Boooo!! Yall are boring!

[SOUL]

Boooo!! Yall are boring!

You forgot to log in on Destin.

[GameOver25]

Boooo!! Yall are boring!

You drinking again be-back?

[Def Swami]

Doesn't have to be all the time, but featuring it a few times when Oladipo is in the game, particularly without Payton, would be nice. Having an extra shooter at PG helps make defenses think even harder about helping of their man and was giving Oladipo a lot more room to operate tonight. As tough a time as he is having finishing or drawing fouls, he does command attention by driving to the basket, which creates plays for others around him. It shouldn't be completely eliminated from our arsenal like it seemed to become in the first several games.

[EAS Law]

I had a thought that maybe this "benching" was an attempt to allow Victor to figure out how to draw fouls by putting him in against 2nd string guys; perhaps to allow him to see things he was missing before.

[Magic_Kingdom]

5-15 though. In some ways this game shows how big the problem really is. If everyone agrees this was Vic's best game of the year, and he was 5-15, then the bar is really low for him now as a #2 pick. Is best-case scenario that he misses a ton of shots but at least makes up for it by getting to the FT line a lot?

[thelead]

5-15 though. In some ways this game shows how big the problem really is. If everyone agrees this was Vic's best game of the year, and he was 5-15, then the bar is really low for him now as a #2 pick. Is best-case scenario that he misses a ton of shots but at least makes up for it by getting to the FT line a lot?

5 for 15 is 5 for 15 and I called him out on it in the game thread but he did have a good game. 13 for 15 from the line equates to roughly 7 for 8 from the field. So we add that to 5-15 and we get 12-23. Not bad at all really. He took it to the hole a lot differently tonight. He was going in looking for contact. He was also able to create from the top of the key which was very different from the previous 14 games... So we'll see how this goes moving forward.

[fateis007]

I am proud of Dipo. I put him on the #1 spot for trade worthy players. But it's cool to see him come out and do what we need for once this year. Take over the game. He was just lethal tonight, turning the corners and splitting through defenders on pick and rolls and drawing contact. Not sure why it took a bench role for him to do this, but please don't stop. It's really the only way we have a chance at the playoffs.

[Orlwillbeback]

5-15 is very much like westbrook. The key factor here is the fta which powers his points per shot. Thats the point im trying to make here people. Geez, yall are sore losers and sorry winners.

[ivDT]

5-15 though. In some ways this game shows how big the problem really is. If everyone agrees this was Vic's best game of the year, and he was 5-15, then the bar is really low for him now as a #2 pick.

recent frustration over vic's performance would suggest that people still expect a lot out of him.

Is best-case scenario that he misses a ton of shots but at least makes up for it by getting to the FT line a lot?

pretty sure the best-case scenario is vic being efficient and drawing fouls at a reasonable clip. i don't think we're at the point where we can just dismiss that scenario out of hand.

we've already seen vic have efficient shooting nights. tonight's game simply encourages people that at some point he'll be able to put it all together.

[shinoff2183]

Maybe harris off the bench?

[MagicStarwipe]

Who cares about 5-15? It didn't feel like 5-15 at all. 24 points on 15 shots is what it comes down to and that's damn good. In only 26 minutes may I add.

[King Close]

5-15 not exactly Westbrook-like...NY is worst fouling team in NBA by far and he was the beneficiary of that tonight - wouldn't expect better teams to bail him out like Knicks did tonight. But his energy off the bench feels right.

You're right, 5-15 isn't quite at the Westbrook level. If he'd go 8-33 then we can start calling him Westbrook who can defend and doesn't whine about every single call. Seriously though, Dipo had a good game, did excellent at drawing fouls which is what we need from him. Hopefully he can keep this up. Good Win.

[ezzzp]

5-15 not exactly Westbrook-like...NY is worst fouling team in NBA by far and he was the beneficiary of that tonight - wouldn't expect better teams to bail him out like Knicks did tonight. But his energy off the bench feels right.

You're right, 5-15 isn't quite at the Westbrook level. If he'd go 8-33 then we can start calling him Westbrook who can defend and doesn't whine about every single call. Seriously though, Dipo had a good game, did excellent at drawing fouls which is what we need from him. Hopefully he can keep this up. Good Win.

Westbrook .575 TS% ... Oladipo .435 TS%

[MagicStarwipe]

Oladipo today .556 TS%. What is wrong with some of you people? Not everything has to be a battle. Dipo had a great bounce back game. He's a good dude. He deserves it. Enjoy it.