Welcome To The Orlando Magic Victor Oladipo

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars

 

Hell, Michael Jordan was only really about 6'4-1/2"

[bhnole 153]

Hell, Michael Jordan was only really about 6'4-1/2"

 

and a 6-9 wingspan...same as Dipo's.

 

MJ did have a ridiculous 48 inch vertical.

[Nyce_1 311]

He is an extremely gifted athlete, tremendous charisma, and just strength of will and personality. But when he gets in the gym, it is all business, and that is exactly what propelled him to so many different things. I mean, it was just common for us to practice and if we ended practice and weren't going into films or the weight room, he stayed in the gym. Put his cones up and started to work on different things, with a coach, without a coach, with a graduate manager, and work on his shooting. Even if we went to weights and to film, he always came back out.

 

We got to the point where we went on the road and we took the cones with us because he wanted to work on and set the cones up at the walk throughs after we'd have our walk through practice because he constantly wanted to make his ball handling better, not only his shooting but his ball handling.

Q. Fairly or unfairly, a lot of people compare Victor to Dwyane Wade. You know a thing or two about Dwyane Wade having coached him at Marquette. Does he compare bodywise, work ethic, that sort of thing? Is that where the comparisons come from?

COACH CREAN: I'm never big on the comparisons because it's not fair to Dwyane. Dwyane is one of the best players in the world, and Victor just turned 21. So it's not fair to either one of them.

 

But where it comes to the comparisons, everyone you just mentioned, there is no question. The character, the kind of people they are, the teammates they are, the way they made each other better, I mean, made their teammates better, I should say, is huge.

 

Dwyane came in with much more of a scorer's mindset than Victor had. I mean, Dwyane had a day his senior year where he scored 48 points on a Christmas tournament in the morning and 42 points at night. That was 90 points for the day. So what you have is a guy that he came in with that.

 

Victor didn't have that. Victor didn't come in with a scorer's mindset. He came in with an energy, get to the rim, defensive mindset, play harder than anybody else, and he became so much more of a scorer.

 

One of the things that stands out about Victor is he never came in with that I have to shoot it mentality. That's not what got him going. What got him going was his defense and his shooting. He became so much better.

 

He's not a volume shooter. He's not a guy that's going to come in and take questionable, shaky shots. He's not a guy that's coming in and it has to be about his offense. Victor is about winning.

 

He had an unbelievable high school career with a great program at DeMatha. He helped us to 56 wins the last two years. He does what it takes to win. Well, Dwyane was very much the same way. But they had two different mindsets coming into college. And Victor is well on the way, because of his level of improvement and because of his age. There is so much upside in Victor, because of his athleticism, because of his character, and because of how smart he is. And Dwyane had the same things there.

 

Now how it all plays out remains to be seen. But Dwyane went in and established that he was going to work. That he wasn't going to take a back seat to fear. He wasn't going to take a back seat to experience. He was going to go and work and play the way he knew how to play. I fully expect that Victor will do the same thing in Orlando.

:o/> :o/> :o/>

Q. You mentioned before that Victor has worked hard on improving his ball handling skills. I'm assuming he didn't play much, if any, point guard for you. Could you see him running an offense in the NBA or at any level?

COACH CREAN: Oh, absolutely. No, no, and he played some point guard. What we did with him is what I did with Dwyane Wade his last year. Dwyane played about 32 minutes a game, and six of those minutes were at the point because he needed to have that in his system. Actually, when Miami drafted him, they drafted him as a point guard.

 

Victor, we ran at point in practice. When you've got great players like that, you've got to try to make the game as hard as it can be for them. At the same time, you've got to try to make them bring as much versatility to their game. Not only for your team, but for their future.

 

And there were a couple of teams that I talked to where I have a respect for them and knew that they were looking at this with the right eyes during the season. That they had questions about could he play that point position; and because he's so good in the middle pick and roll and got so good in the side pick and roll and he needed to improve his decision making, we'd do that with him. There were times in games that he would play the point. There were certainly times in practice that he would run the point. Any time we did three on three, four and four type situations, he would run the point instead of the offense. So all of those things helped him.

 

There is no question, Victor Oladipo is a guard. But the one thing he is too and we needed him on the offensive board. I mean is a guy that the last month of the season he had his best offensive numbers for us. We go up to Michigan and win the Big Ten Championship, and he's got seven offensive boards, I believe, in that game. So he's such a basketball player that you don't want to take his strengths away from him. That building that strength to be able to run an offense is something that we were really conscious of.

 

And there's more here http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/062813aab.html. Great insight by his coach. WOW!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing how serious he is at developing his ball handling and how his coach played him at PG to develop his decision making. Seriously, I think we got STAR.

[Skywise316 211]

We've started to call him "Home Depot" (Home Dipo?) around the house because I had a hard time pronouncing his name at first. LOL I think it's gonna stick...

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,032]

It was the best pick we could make. He wasn't seen as a "sexy pick" but he has the work ethic and some groove in his game to make him very entertaining down the line.

 

GOOD LUCK, VIC!

[Live or Die Magic 383]

We've started to call him "Home Depot" (Home Dipo?) around the house because I had a hard time pronouncing his name at first. LOL I think it's gonna stick...

 

It also could work as a phrase to describe his defensive abilities: "stay at home 'Dipo."

 

But I definitely prefer "Home Depot" over just plain "Dipo."

 

Now, can we get back to work on this "Henny" thing?

[Hark&Harris 0]

I've been around for years lingering on the boards and I used to have an account before it switched over to trubluenation; but anyways I am excited about the direction we are headed. Hennigan is really laying a solid foundation. Does anyone know what time Oladipo will be introduced to the media today?

[Tom Ford 9]

I've been around for years lingering on the boards and I used to have an account before it switched over to trubluenation; but anyways I am excited about the direction we are headed. Hennigan is really laying a solid foundation. Does anyone know what time Oladipo will be introduced to the media today?

 

 

They will be introduced at 3pm. They are going to do a live stream as well.!!!!!!!!!!

[Hark&Harris 0]

They will be introduced at 3pm. They are going to do a live stream as well.!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ok sweet! Thanks man!

[Tom Ford 9]

Ok sweet! Thanks man!

 

Pushed it back to 3:30, Hennigan is in a meeting with them right now

[Janders 102]

Here's a link to the 3:30 press conference

Link

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Simmons made a good "best case" comparison for Oladipo last night in Joe Dumars in my opinion. Not sure he can create for others like Dumars but besides that I really like the comparison.