It’s been a while since Victor Oladipo last played on an NBA court. He last played early on in the Miami Heat’s historic run in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, which saw them reach the NBA Finals as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.
He suffered a knee injury in those playoffs, though, and has yet to receive another opportunity to play at the highest level since.
However, Oladipo is looking to make an NBA comeback, and he has worked out in front of NBA scouts lately. According to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, the Heat were among the teams scouting Oladipo in a scrimmage on Monday.
“Front and center has been a player attempting to get back in front of NBA eyes, with former Heat guard Victor Oladipo attempting a comeback with workouts in Las Vegas in front of NBA scouts,” Winderman wrote.
“Oladipo’s last NBA action came in the 2023 playoffs for the Heat, when he tore the patellar tendon in his left knee. He then was offloaded by the Heat in a 2023 offseason salary dump.
“Now 33, Oladipo has been very public about intentions to get back into the league, with the Heat among the teams scouting in his Monday scrimmage work.”
It would be fitting for Oladipo to end his hiatus from the league with the NBA team he last played with.
Oladipo made the deepest playoff run of his NBA career with the Heat not long before injuries put an abrupt end to his time in Miami.
He averaged 10.6 points and 1.3 steals per game in primarily a bench role in the 2022 NBA Playoffs, and the Heat made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in a hard-fought series.
Individually, Oladipo carved out the most successful seasons of his career with the Indiana Pacers, as he averaged 20.6 points per game for his Pacers tenure (which spanned several seasons) and was a legitimate star in Indiana.
However, the 33-year-old is far removed from his time with the Pacers stint and even his Heat stint, and it’s difficult to gauge how impactful Oladipo could still be considering he hasn’t played in the NBA since 2023.
It’s unclear how enthusiastic Oladipo would be at his advanced age about joining a Heat team that is in the middle of the pack in the East.
Star forward Jimmy Butler is now a member of the Golden State Warriors, and the Heat don’t stick out as the legitimate title contenders they once were.
Oladipo’s situation as he tries to earn a spot back in the best basketball league on the planet will be worth keeping track of for the near future.