Doctor on Victor Oladipo's Injury Timeline, Plus His Potential Impact on the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are off to a strong start this season, and a healthy Victor Oladipo will help their chances of competing for the Eastern Conference title.
Six months after offseason surgery to repair his right quadriceps tendon and more than two weeks into the NBA season, Victor Oladipo has yet to be given a public timeline and has not been seen in practice as he continues to rehab his injury.
Coach Erik Spoelstra has a policy of not providing injury updates and stuck to that last week when asked about Oladipo’s status. “No, I do not have an update for you,” was Spoelstra’s reply when I asked. I followed up by asking if Oladipo is practicing and got the same answer.
Despite the coach’s policy, it was worth a shot. Based on his injury and procedure, Oladipo could be ramping up his involvement in practice by now. It’s worth noting that Oladipo is not yet traveling with the team for road trips, and it’s unclear what his level of activity is in practice. But for a Heat team that appears poised to make a run for the Eastern Conference title, Oladipo’s addition could be an X-factor this season.
In May, Oladipo’s operating surgeon told ESPN that he was hopeful Oladipo could return to full-contact practice in November. That timeline checked out to Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Schultz, who spoke to me for this piece.
That doesn’t mean Oladipo should be rushed back. The key, according to Schultz, is to ensure that his recovery is sound enough to avoid another setback.
“The biggest thing for a professional athlete is to give it enough time because they're going to want to push,” said Schultz, who specializes in sports medicine and is a team physician for the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. “And they're going to feel like they can, but you can't really -- even if you're a world-class athlete. You can't push biology sometimes.”
After undergoing an initial procedure to repair the right quad in January 2019, Oladipo appeared in just 33 games during the 2020-21 season, four of which were for the Heat after the team acquired him at the trade deadline. Oladipo hasn’t played since April 8. Days after his surgery on May 13, Oladipo’s operating surgeon spoke to ESPN, but Oladipo has not committed publicly to the November timeline, saying only “hopefully sooner than later” before the season.
It’s unclear if Oladipo rushed back from the initial procedure, but according to ESPN, his surgeon for the second procedure was surprised Oladipo was able to play at all. “The quad wasn't really hooked up. It was torn, and I reattached it,” Dr. Jonathan Glashow said. “I was amazed he was playing with what he had.”
Schultz couldn’t speak to specifics of either surgery but said there is no reason that Oladipo cannot return to 100% of his pre-surgery condition as long as the quad is fully healed.
“I wouldn't say there was a reason why they couldn’t,” Schultz said of a professional athlete undergoing multiple procedures. “A lot of it depends on the severity of the injury and the repair and then their healing. So I wouldn't ever rule it out. But you also can't guarantee that either.”
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It typically takes about three months for the tissue to heal and regain range of motion, according to Schultz. Then the patient starts the process of regaining strength. A player could be expected to start sport-specific training after four to five months. In September, about four months after his surgery, Oladipo told reporters he was doing “super-light” work but was not yet running full speed. After six months, the full-contact practicing can typically begin.
That’s where the Heat and Oladipo are now. Since there has been muscle atrophy of the right quad -- which is used to run, cut, jump, etc. -- the focus for Miami’s trainers, physicians and coaches will eventually shift to getting Oladipo’s strength back.
Over time, this will include lifting, participating in practice drills and working his way from 1 on 1 to 5 on 5 scrimmages. During this phase, the medical staff will monitor his strength gains, conditioning and pain tolerance.
They’ll “make sure that [Oladipo is] not losing strength or not developing pain or developing changes in the way that they're moving around the court,” Schultz said. “Because sometimes that can be a subtle cue that something might not be right even before the athlete picks up on it.”
It’ll be up to Oladipo, in conjunction with the team’s medical staff and coaches, to determine when he is comfortable enough to play in a game. It’s impossible to know when that will be, but it does not look imminent. The expectation within the Heat organization is closer to the All-Star break.
The key for Miami is that Oladipo is at full strength for the playoff push in March and April, not for the dog days of December and January. For Oladipo, who last summer signed a one-year minimum contract to remain with the Heat, his focus too should be on a full recovery and avoiding similar setbacks to the ones that have limited him to just 85 games over the last three years. Because the Heat have his Bird Rights, they can go over the cap to re-sign him next summer.
An effective Oladipo coming off Miami’s bench could be a swing factor in the Eastern Conference.
At his best, Oladipo is a two-way presence who can score, facilitate and defend multiple positions. In his last healthy season, he averaged 23.1 points on 47.7% shooting (37.1% on 3s), 5.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists and was named first-team All-Defense as an All-Star for the Indiana Pacers.
Miami’s starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson, P.J. Tucker and Bam Abebayo is fixed, but Oladipo would deepen Miami’s bench rotation that already includes Tyler Herro and Dewayne Dedmon. Right now, there’s a lot of Max Strus (pre-injury) and two-way contract player Caleb Martin soaking up minutes. In the regular season, that’s fine. In the playoffs, they’ll be outmatched.
It’s easy to envision Oladipo completing closing lineups much in the same way Andre Iguodala did for the champion-era Golden State Warriors.
In certain matchups, Spoelstra could replace Tucker with Oladipo, putting another player who commands respect from the perimeter on the floor. With his shooting, Oladipo could open up things inside for Butler and Adebayo. His drive-and-kick game could set up shots for Robinson or Herro.
Against predatory mismatch hunters such as the Milwaukee Bucks, it also ensures that the Heat don’t have to play minus-defenders Robinson and Herro at the same time, tilting too far away from defense in order to get more offense on the floor.
Even if he doesn’t fully recover his All-Star form, Oladipo could still be the skeleton key the Heat need in the moments that matter most.
“Man, we scary good,” Oladipo tweeted after the Heat’s recent win over the Dallas Mavericks.
With a healthy Oladipo, they’ll be even better.