Victor Oladipo hasn’t played in an NBA game since the 2022-23 season, and even then, he was a mere shell of his peak self, averaging 10.7 points in 26.3 minutes across 42 appearances for the Miami Heat. Now, he’s put in the work and is making his case for one more chance.

Oladipo recently penned a heartfelt appeal to the league’s general managers in a Players’ Tribune piece, asking for another opportunity, and it appears at least one team–coincidentally the last one whom he played for–is listening. The Heat, currently in the middle of a roster overhaul following the recent trade that brought in Giannis Antetokounmpo, are reportedly interested and have already let him work out at their facility.

It’s a humble request from a player who once looked like a budding superstar. Oladipo broke into the league as the second overall pick of the Orlando Magic in 2013-14, finishing as Rookie of the Year runner-up while starting 44 of his 80 games. He spent three seasons in Orlando and one with the Oklahoma City Thunder as a solid role player before a trade to the Indiana Pacers in the summer of 2017 changed everything.

That move sparked his rise into a genuine All-Star. In 2017-18, Oladipo had a career year, averaging 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and a league-leading 2.4 steals, earning his first All-Star selection, Third Team All-NBA honors, First Team All-Defense recognition, and the Most Improved Player award, while also finishing top-15 in both Defensive Player of the Year and MVP voting. That season, he and the Pacers pushed LeBron James and the eventual Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers to seven games in the first round.

He made a second All-Star team the following year, but everything changed in January 2019, when a ruptured quad tendon limited him to 36 games and kicked off a run of injury-plagued seasons he never fully escaped. He returned for a shortened 19-game campaign in 2019-20, bounced between Indiana, Houston, and Miami in 2020-21, and eventually settled with the Heat, where his role and production shrank considerably, 12.4 points in 2021-22 and 10.7 in 2022-23, with just two starts across those 42 games. A knee injury kept him out entirely in 2023-24.

At his peak, the 6-foot-3 Oladipo was a devastating combo guard who built his game on defense before blossoming into a genuine scoring threat, topping out at 23.1 points a game on 47.7 percent shooting during that 2018 breakout. 

At 34 years old now, with his injury history in mind, he’s realistically a role player who could give a team 10 to 15 solid minutes off the bench at best, leaning on his defense and bringing the kind of positive locker room presence that any team chasing a breakout, or a contender chasing a title, would welcome.

The Heat could definitely use him given their thin perimeter situation following the Antetokounmpo trade. For a team searching for perimeter depth, taking a chance on a familiar, battle-tested presence might be one of the easier decisions they make this offseason.”