This is not how Victor Oladipo anticipated NBA free agency playing out, after working his way back from injury the past two seasons with the Miami Heat.
So, he said Thursday, consider it more fuel.
“It kind of seemed,” the veteran guard said after a workout at FTX Arena, “like a lot of people were kind of shying away from me.”
So after taking a one-year deal at the veteran minimum last season from the Heat, this time it is a two-year deal at about $17 million, essentially mid-level money for the two-time former All-Star.
“Free agency is free agency. You’re not really sure; you’re not sure,” he said of how the start to his summer played out. “You have ideas. You kind of have aspirations for certain things to go certain ways.”
Before being dealt to the Heat at the 2021 NBA trading deadline from the Houston Rockets for Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley, Oladipo turned down a two-year, $45 million Rockets extension, having previously bypassed a four-year, $112 million extension from the Indiana Pacers.
“It’s tough whenever you face adversity, and you have to figure out a way to climb out of it and figure out a way to continue to keep pushing and keep fighting,” said Oladipo, 30, who has dealt with knee and quadriceps issues. “Of course I’m human. There are days where it gets frustrating. There are days you wish you can turn back time and change things.
“But I live with no regrets. Things happen to everyone. It’s just about how you handle that thing or that situation when it comes up that defines what type of character and what type of person you are, when it’s all said and done. I know this is a mountain climb, and I just started climbing the mountain.”
So the workouts such as Thursday’s remain ongoing.
“I’ve come a long way, but I still have a long way to go,” he said. “I’m putting in the work every day to make sure I go past where I even was before injuries. It’s an uphill battle, it’s an uphill climb. But I don’t plan on stopping the climb any time soon.”
Oladipo was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2018 while with the Pacers. Thursday he was asked whether that again is a goal.
“I truly believe that I can be better than I was,” he said. “That may sound crazy to everyone, but I rather have that mentality and I can live with the results after that, because I’m going to push myself to be that.
“I think the biggest goal for me is just to show everyone that I’m healthy and I can play a whole year and also to show everyone that I’m one of the best players in this league. So everything else will take care of itself, and that’s what I’m focused on.”
Such proof could result in a return to free agency next summer, with the second year of Oladipo’s deal a player option.
For now, it’s about again establishing a place with the Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra, having emerged in the run to the Eastern Conference finals as a reliable rotation complement.
“I’m supposed to be meeting with Spo a little later on in a couple of weeks when he comes back from Vegas,” Oladipo said amid the NBA’s ongoing Las Vegas Summer League. “So I look forward to that meeting, that dinner. But I don’t necessarily know what next year looks like or feels like. But I do know that I will be prepared for anything.
“So I’m going to prepare myself for any and everything. So that won’t be something I’ll be worried about going into training camp, is being prepared, because without any doubt in my mind, I know I will be. Whatever next year brings, I’ll be ready for it.”
