Oklahoma City Thunder: The New And Improved Victor Oladipo

Victor Oladipo is having a career year in his first season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. His improved shooting and solid perimeter defense make him a great fit for Russell Westbrook.

Victor Oladipo improved steadily over the course of his three years with the Orlando Magic. He increased both his field goal and three-point percentages in each successive season. Oladipo also reduced his turnovers each year, from 3.2 per game his rookie year to 2.8 his second season and 2.1 last year.

Despite his growth and only three years after being taken as the No. 2 overall pick, Orlando traded Oladipo to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Serge Ibaka on draft night this past offseason. The trade also included Orlando’s No. 11 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, which the Thunder used to select Domantas Sabonis — who has started all 47 games for the Thunder this season.

Oladipo has made arguably his biggest leap yet this year. Despite playing alongside Russell Westbrook, Oladipo has upped his scoring average this year. He has also increased his three-point percentage from below league-average to a solid 37.6 percent. His turnover numbers are also down to just 1.6 per game. Oladipo has been both more efficient and more effective this year than ever before. His continued development will be a huge factor in determining the Thunder’s future.

Last Season: Struggles To Score

One of the biggest question marks about Oladipo to this season was his three-point shooting. Although he shot 44.4 percent from deep in his last season at Indiana, he still shot just 33.8 percent from deep for his college career. Oladipo shot 32.7 percent from deep in his rookie season in Orlando and was still below average last year at 34.8 percent. His True Shooting Percentage was also below league-average at 53.4 percent.

Part of Oladipo’s struggles with efficiency stemmed from his shot selection. Last year, Oladipo took 72 percent of his three-point attempts from above the break and made only 33.5 percent of them, per NBA.com.

Another reason for his poor efficiency is that he was the main focus of his opponent’s perimeter defense. Oladipo was the highest scoring perimeter player on the Magic; only Nikola Vucevic had a higher usage rate than Oladipo last season. Thus, his looks were often heavily contested:

Oladipo has to get credit for making this shot, but notice how focused Cleveland is on stopping this play. LeBron James is right on his hip from the moment he gets the ball and still gets a decent contest even after Dipo’s step-back.

Iman Shumpert is guarding a great three-point shooter in Evan Fournier, but even he is looking over at Victor on this play. Despite Vucevic supposedly being a bigger scoring threat, Cleveland nonetheless leaves Matthew Dellavedova on him to shut down Oladipo.

This Season: Making Better Choices And Getting Better Looks

This season has been entirely different for Oladipo. He is attempting 5.6 triples per game, a huge jump from his previous career-high of 3.9 last season. He has somehow coupled that increased frequency with increased accuracy.

There are two main reasons for his jump in accuracy. The first is improved shot selection from deep. This season, he has taken 68.1 percent of his threes from above the break and has instead opted for more corner threes.

The second and seemingly more obvious reason is that Oladipo is far more open this year than ever before. Oladipo is the second-leading scorer for the Thunder this year, just as he was for the Magic last year.

However, teams are far more afraid of Russell Westbrook than they are of Nikola Vucevic. Additionally, Oladipo is no longer the biggest perimeter threat on his team, which leads to more open looks. Just compare the level of defensive attention in the previous clip to what Oladipo sees in OKC:

All five Raptors defenders are staring at Russell Westbrook until he passes to Oladipo. Kyle Lowry, a fantastic and frequently underrated defender, almost strays into the paint to shut down Westbrook’s drive. By the time he even looks at Oladipo, Victor has already started his shooting motion.

Victor Oladipo deserves a ton of credit for improving his accuracy from behind the arc. He has grown from a below-average shooter to the second-best shooter on the Thunder. He is behind only Jerami Grant, who shot 27.6 percent from deep in his time in Philly but is shooting a shocking and seemingly unsustainable 40.3 percent on triples this season. It is remarkable that Oladipo has increased his attempt rate while also improving his accuracy.

Defense: Lightening Westbrook’s Burden

Victor Oladipo was touted as a defensive player long before his offense began to develop. Even when he has struggled to score efficiently, he has been excellent on the other end of the floor. Playing Andre Roberson and Oladipo together allows Russell Westbrook to rest on defense. He can cover the least effective opposing perimeter player at little cost to the Thunder.

Oladipo’s defensive impact on the Thunder is massive. The Thunder are ninth overall in Defensive Rating at 104.3, per NBA.com. Oladipo currently sports a Defensive Rating of 101.0. Only Steven Adams (at 100.5) has a better mark among Thunder players with more than 100 minutes this season. Oladipo’s mark is even with that of the league-leading Warriors. His Defensive Real Plus-Minus of 0.36 is lower than his 0.79 mark from last season. However, only two shooting guards are averaging more than 30 minutes per game and posting a better mark than Oladipo — Miami’s Tyler Johnson and Charlotte’s Nicolas Batum.

With Oladipo off the floor, OKC’s Defensive Rating craters to 108.6. Only Adams and defensive specialist Andre Roberson have a bigger gap in their on and off-court Defensive Ratings. Those numbers are certainly aided by the shortcomings of the Thunder bench. Even with that in mind, however, it is easy to see how much of a difference Oladipo makes on defense.

Looking Forward

It bears repeating that Victor Oladipo has improved his shooting in each of his four NBA seasons. Oladipo will also more than likely be a member of the Thunder for a while. He signed a four-year, $84 million extension and seems to be a key piece for the post-Durant Thunder.

With Steven Adams also locked in for another four years, Russell Westbrook can rest assured that two of his running mates will not be going anywhere. Adams seems to improve as a pick-and-roll threat by the day and is already a defensive anchor. Oladipo has shown thus far that he can cover for Westbrook and spot up around him on offense.

Victor Oladipo has been a huge success story for the Thunder this season. If he can keep up his rate of improvement in the years to come, the Thunder might get a top-four seed in the West far sooner than anyone could have expected.