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January 29 is a date that has been circled by Pacers fans since last week. 

It’s the scheduled date for Victor Oladipo to return to the floor for the Blue & Gold after the All-Star made the announcment in an interview with Shams Charmania.

While the news of him being back in the lineup with a couple months before the NBA playoffs start, there are some questions that surround his return after missing over a year with a ruptured quad. JMV addresssed those on Wednesday. 

How will Victor look when he comes back?

“Frankly, I don’t know. I expect this overall: he’s going to go at it hard, but he’s not going to be Vic two years ago immediately,” said JMV.  

“We’ll see how he deals with that, how they deal with that, how you deal with that. And then longer term, for a dude that does rely a major deal – I mean his major strength is athleticism. There’s just not a lot to go on, and hopefully he’s not robbed of that.”

Every star NBA player has their signature trait. Steph Curry’s is shooting, Giannis is his freak athletic ability, and Victor’s is his outstanding explosiveness up the court and to the basket. A ruptured quad on the surface is not great for that trait. 

Will the time Vic has spent sidelined lead to him developing a better outside jumpshot? Pacers fans certainly hope so. But JMV hopes it’s still not rushed like the process seemed last year. 

“He’s going to go at it hard, he’s going to want to make these guys even better, and I think it’s gonna take a great deal of time. Hopefully he returns to form of two years ago because we saw a year ago, I mean he was a shell of his former self.”

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