Victor Oladipo injury update: Heat guard could make season debut by mid-March, per report

The Miami Heat did not make any significant moves at the trade deadline, but that doesn’t mean they’re done shaping their roster ahead of the playoffs. They should be serious players in the buyout market as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, and there’s also room for internal additions. 

Most notably, they have Victor Oladipo waiting in the wings. The former All-Star guard underwent surgery on his quad tendon last May and has not played this season. He’s getting closer to a return, however, and recently hit a major milestone when he was sent to the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, for 5-on-5 work. Now there’s optimism from within the organization that Oladipo could make his season debut by the second week of March, according to a report from ESPN.

“It feels good to be able to play the game I love,” Oladipo said after a practice last week. “You go through stuff in life, and you have to battle. I’ve gone through this twice, so I know how to prep mentally. But each time is new, and those challenges arise, and you have to adapt.

“I feel good to be able to play the game I love. You go through stuff in life, and you must battle,” Oladipo continued. “It is a whirlwind of emotions. As a competitor, you want to play a certain way but it’s about winning the small battles and I won that today. I am just thankful to keep building.”

Oladipo initially ruptured his quad tendon in January of 2019 while playing for the Indiana Pacers, and since then has played just 52 games in two-plus seasons. He was also forced to undergo a second surgery on the quad last year because the initial procedure didn’t fully fix the problem. 

“I repaired the quad tendon and did it a little differently than [he had] it done before,” Oladipo’s surgeon Dr. Jonathan Glashow said last May. “The quad wasn’t really hooked up. It was torn, and I reattached it. I was amazed he was playing with what he had.”

Both Oladipo and the Heat are hopeful that he’ll now be fully healthy and able to return to something resembling his pre-injury form. He’s been taking part in workouts with teammates in recent weeks, and Heat veteran Udonis Haslem told the media that Oladipo is “definitely better” than he was last year. It remains to be seen, however, how that will translate to games after such a long layoff.