Victor Oladipo Crush-a-lot

[Hydroponic3385]

What the hell is this VP? Do you mean VO?

 

[I.K.W.T]

What the hell is this VP? Do you mean VO?

Joe Biden.

 

[Smooth]

The growing Oladipo buzz has me really thinking the Cavs could be considering him as a SF... Because otherwise, I really have a hard time seeing them bring in a #1 pick off the bench or bringing Waiters off the bench...

I think we can all agree that Oladipo isn't a SF by traditional standards... But that's the key: traditional standards... In what Spoeltra started in Miami and what several advanced stat gurus have brought up is the concept of positionless basketball... And even the concept of the positions we're used to are old and archaic and that instead there are several different roles players can hold instead...

So considering the Cavs are big on advanced stats, I do wonder if they perhaps buy into the developing concept of the changing direction of positions... And in regards to Oladipo, it possibly lessens there concerns with him playing as what is considered a SF...

LeBron James and Carmelo are often brought up as SFs but are they really? According to 82games, Melo played the majority of his minutes at PF; 6x as many minutes as SF... For LeBron, he played the majority of his minutes at PF... He played 42% of the Heat's PF and 29% of the team's minutes at SF... So we see players defined by the SF label, not really adhering to the definitions which again is the movement of new positions...

But even if LeBron or Melo aren't SFs, the problem is still, who do you have to guard them?

But by taking those two out of the picture, for the instance, and saying their PFs, what other "SFs" would the Cavs have to worry about?

It seems like outside of Durant and Paul George, the SF position is quite weak... Looking at the Eastern Conference playoffs, the starting SFs last year were: Iman Shumpert (the Knicks really bought into small-ball fulltime), Gerald Wallace, Luol Deng, Kyle Korver, Paul Pierce and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute... And shifting and going to the Western Conference playoffs: Kawhi Leonard, Danilo Gallinari, Caron Butler, Tayshaun Prince, Harrison Barnes, Metta World Peace and Chandler Parsons...

And if you want to look at it from a different angle, going forward you need to worry about: Deng, Durant, Barnes, George, Gallo and maybe Pierce... Half of those are in the WC and we have no clue what will happen to Pierce... Korver, Mbah a Moute, Leonard, Prince, World Peace and even Parsons aren't primary options that will hurt you... They're complimentary pieces that can be dealt with...

So considering that, here's Oladipo's measurements:

6'3.25" w/o shoes -- 213lbs -- 6'9.25" wingspan -- 8'4.5" standing reach -- 33 no step vert -- 42 max vert -- 15 bench press -- 10.69 lane agility

What stands out: he has good arm length but not freakishly long... He's also well built for his size and stronger than expected...

Now here's the measurements for the top SFs:

George: 6'7.75" w/o shoes -- 214lbs -- 6'11.25" wingspan -- 8'11" standing reach
Deng: 6'7" -- 220 -- 7'0.5" -- 9'0.5"
Barnes: 6'7" -- 228 -- 6'11.25" -- 8'5.5"
Durant: 6'9" -- 215 -- 7'4.75" -- 9'2"
Gallinari: n/a
Pierce: n/a
Batum: 6'7.75 w/ shoes -- 214 -- 7'0.75" -- 8'8.75"
Gay: 6'7" -- 222 -- 7'3" -- 8'11.2"

(throwing Batum and Gay in there too, even if they weren't in the playoffs)

Similar players with Oladipo's measurements: Tony Allen (near identical across the board), Bradley Beal, Jae Crowder (a lot heavier but not as explosive), Rodney Stuckey, Dwyane Wade (longer arms), Wayne Ellington, Gerald Henderson, Keith Bogans, Mo Evans, Trenton Hassell, Lance Stephenson and Iman Shumpert (very close)... Jimmy Butler has same length but 4' taller...

Out of those guys, Allen, Crowder and Shumpert are the only guys recently to be that size and play SF a chunk of the time... Here's how they fared (going by OPP PER):

Allen--
12-13: 15.9
11-12: 11.4

Shumpert--
12-13: 16.1
11-12: N/A

Crowder--
12-13: 12.5
11-12: N/A

There's not a whole lot to conclude but that it can be done...

The concern is if Oladipo can stand strong in the post (seems strong coming in) and if players can easily shoot over him... The other thing is having him at SF with Waiters at SG means the Cavs can't cross-check, leaving Oladipo to guard SFs the whole game...

I'm weary of it but I'm trying to potentially get behind the Cavs thinking here... Now all of this could go the shitter if they trade Waiters or if they see Oladipo as a SG but I'm having a really hard time seeing either happen...

 

[Nw220]

If we could honestly play him at SF I'd consider him if Noel doesn't check out healthy...

 

[pl4tinum]

Fun fact: Oladipo and Olajuwon are the only two players in NBA history (well, next year they will be) to both have their name start with Ola. That puts him in some good company!

 

[Derek]

Fun fact: Oladipo and Olajuwon are the only two players in NBA history (well, next year they will be) to both have their name start with Ola. That puts him in some good company!

I'm sold

 

[Ohio]

Fun fact: Oladipo and Olajuwon are the only two players in NBA history (well, next year they will be) to both have their name start with Ola. That puts him in some good company!

Leave it to the Oladipo crowd to come up with that one :chuckles:

 

[CodyL1121]

Fun fact: Oladipo and Olajuwon are the only two players in NBA history (well, next year they will be) to both have their name start with Ola. That puts him in some good company!

Funner Fact: Noel will be the only player in Cavs history to have a name start with NO. As in NO, don't draft Oladipo.

 

[Nathan S]

Funner Fact: Noel will be the only player in Cavs history to have a name start with NO. As in NO, don't draft Oladipo.

Does it also mean he'll develop Nowitzki's jumper? If so I'm back on board.

 

[STAT]

Great couple of jokes, everyone. Pat yourselves on the back.

 

[pl4tinum]

Noel has "chronically injured big man with so much wasted potential" written all over him. When I look at photos of him, I can just see the headline underneath the photo "What could have been."

I'll gladly eat crow if he turns out to be the next Olajuwon or heck, even as good as Camby would be OK, I guess. I will never ever live down passing on Oladipo that turns out to be a superstar over an oft-injured center. We already have Irving, you'd think that would be enough injury potential for one team.

 

[Green Lantern]

Smooth thank U. Even though I'm not on the VO bandwagon, I've been waiting for someone to post something elaberate to show what would make the Cavs consider him.
As I said I can't see the Cavs drafting @ 1 or even top 5 and then bring him off the bench to play a % of time at SF.
He has to be a fulltime player.
But you echo's the crux of my concern:

The concern is if Oladipo can stand strong in the post (seems strong coming in) and if players can easily shoot over him... The other thing is having him at SF with Waiters at SG means the Cavs can't cross-check, leaving Oladipo to guard SFs the whole game...Right now there may not be a ton of quality SF's but there still is a list of them and most are pretty tough covers .
I'm just not sold on this. Of course no one should be sold on anything till the draft actually occurs.

 

[Tornicade]

If only the NBA had a zone and Oladipo knew how to box out.

 

[pl4tinum]

This is mostly a joke; so please don't flame me, just laugh at it This is an excerpt from Wikipedia I can't get out of my head So I translated it from 1984 to 2013, in a scenario similar to the Jordan draft year. At the time everyone knew Jordan was a great player but had no idea he would become the best ever.

Original excerpt;
The 1984 draft class is considered to be one of the best in NBA history as it produced four Hall of Famers and seven All-Stars.[21][22][23][24]However, it was also marked by the Blazers' selection of Sam Bowie, considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.[25][26][27][28][29] It is believed that the Blazers picked Bowie over Michael Jordan because they already had an All Star shooting guard in Jim Paxson and a young shooting guard in Clyde Drexler, whom they drafted in the 1983 Draft.[11][30] Although Drexler went on to have a successful career, Bowie's career was cut short by injuries; he had missed two of the past three seasons in his college career as well.[10]Despite having a 10-year career in the NBA and averaging 10.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Bowie's career was interrupted by five leg surgeries, which limited him to 139 games in 5 years with the Blazers.[31][32]

Edited for fun:
The 2013 draft class is considered to be one of the worst in NBA history (before the draft).[21][22][23][24]However, it was also marked by the Cavaliers' selection of Nerlens Noel, considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.[25][26][27][28][29] It is believed that the Cavs picked Noel over Victor Oladipo because they already had an All Star-caliber shooting guard in Dion Waiters and a young shooting guard in Wayne Ellington, whom they picked up from the Grizzlies the previous year.[11][30] Although Waiters went on to have a successful career, Noel's career was cut short by injuries; he had missed most of his only season in his college career as well.[10]Despite having a 10-year career in the NBA and averaging 10.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Noel’s career was interrupted by five leg surgeries, which limited him to 139 games in 5 years with the Cavaliers.[31][32]

Do we really want to pass on Oladipo and risk drafting the next Bowie? Haha!!! Gotcha thinking, right? Maybe? I'm just having fun with this. Sorry if it pisses anyone off, hehe.

And before someone said "You're seriously comparing Oladipo to Jordan, you're an idiot", I'm only comparing him to pre-NBA Jordan, and slightly at that. And I'm not the first. Look up "Victor Oladipo Michael Jordan" and you'll be surprised, there are several articles about it.

http://dimemag.com/2013/05/nba-draft-could-victor-oladipo-be-the-next-michael-jordan-why-not/
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/02/21/oladipo-jordan-a-fair-comparison/
http://www.mockdrafthq.com/nba/2013/02/victor-oladipo-is-the-next-michael-jordan/
etc.

I doubt he will ever be anywhere close to as good as Jordan but not many are. I guess there's always the potential for him to be a superstar and that's what I think he will turn out to be. If I'm wrong I will gladly eat crow

 

[Green Lantern]

This is mostly a joke; so please don't flame me, just laugh at it This is an excerpt from Wikipedia I can't get out of my head So I translated it from 1984 to 2013, in a scenario similar to the Jordan draft year. At the time everyone knew Jordan was a great player but had no idea he would become the best ever.

Original excerpt;
The 1984 draft class is considered to be one of the best in NBA history as it produced four Hall of Famers and seven All-Stars.[21][22][23][24]However, it was also marked by the Blazers' selection of Sam Bowie, considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.[25][26][27][28][29] It is believed that the Blazers picked Bowie over Michael Jordan because they already had an All Star shooting guard in Jim Paxson and a young shooting guard in Clyde Drexler, whom they drafted in the 1983 Draft.[11][30] Although Drexler went on to have a successful career, Bowie's career was cut short by injuries; he had missed two of the past three seasons in his college career as well.[10]Despite having a 10-year career in the NBA and averaging 10.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Bowie's career was interrupted by five leg surgeries, which limited him to 139 games in 5 years with the Blazers.[31][32]

Edited for fun:
The 2013 draft class is considered to be one of the worst in NBA history (before the draft).[21][22][23][24]However, it was also marked by the Cavaliers' selection of Nerlens Noel, considered one of the biggest draft busts in NBA history.[25][26][27][28][29] It is believed that the Cavs picked Noel over Victor Oladipo because they already had an All Star-caliber shooting guard in Dion Waiters and a young shooting guard in Wayne Ellington, whom they picked up from the Grizzlies the previous year.[11][30] Although Waiters went on to have a successful career, Noel's career was cut short by injuries; he had missed most of his only season in his college career as well.[10]Despite having a 10-year career in the NBA and averaging 10.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Noel’s career was interrupted by five leg surgeries, which limited him to 139 games in 5 years with the Cavaliers.[31][32]

Do we really want to pass on Oladipo and risk drafting the next Bowie? Haha!!! Gotcha thinking, right? Maybe? I'm just having fun with this. Sorry if it pisses anyone off, hehe.

And before someone said "You're seriously comparing Oladipo to Jordan, you're an idiot", I'm only comparing him to pre-NBA Jordan, and slightly at that. And I'm not the first. Look up "Victor Oladipo Michael Jordan" and you'll be surprised, there are several articles about it.

http://dimemag.com/2013/05/nba-draft-could-victor-oladipo-be-the-next-michael-jordan-why-not/
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/02/21/oladipo-jordan-a-fair-comparison/
http://www.mockdrafthq.com/nba/2013/02/victor-oladipo-is-the-next-michael-jordan/
etc.

I doubt he will ever be anywhere close to as good as Jordan but not many are. I guess there's always the potential for him to be a superstar and that's what I think he will turn out to be. If I'm wrong I will gladly eat crow

I'll flame you because U didn't put enough into your edit..like what happened to Oladipo??? Did he become a superstar or all-star?
Dang if ya gonna do it , go all the way man.:gap: