Miami Heat: Can Victor Oladipo raise their ceiling in 2022-23?

The Miami Heat has had a quiet offseason thus far, but Victor Oladipo is a player that could potentially raise their ceiling in 2022-23.

Heading into the offseason, the Miami Heat‘s goal was to make a big splash. Over the past three years, it’s been proven that they may be one big piece away from winning a championship. The hope was that they could make that happen this summer. And that much was evident by the rumors that they were in on the Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell sweepstakes.

Ultimately, the offseason ended with the Heat making no splashes and losing a key contributor from last season.

The offseason was far from ideal, even more so considering a few other teams made steps forward in the Eastern Conference while the Heat seemingly took a step back.

Can Victor Oladipo change the math for the Miami Heat in 2022-23?

Though, if there’s one player on the Heat that could potentially raise the Heat’s ceiling heading into this season, it’s Victor Oladipo.

The Heat took a chance on Oladipo two NBA Trade Deadlines ago. So far the move hasn’t paid off, but there’s hope it could finally do so this season. Oladipo finally got to experience an offseason where he didn’t have to focus on rehab and was simply able to work on his craft. It was a first for him in a very long time.

Now, heading into this season, he’ll have a chance to shine. And, quite frankly, if the Heat is going to be a factor in the East once again, they’ll need him to.

Oladipo signed essentially another one-year deal with the Heat in an attempt to get his value back up before cashing in for a multi-year deal. The hope is that Oladipo can begin to look a little more like his old self.

It’s something that Oladipo has bet on and something that the Heat would greatly benefit from.

Looking at the Heat’s roster, it’s difficult to pinpoint how exactly they’re going to improve heading into this season. Jimmy Butler is going to be Jimmy Butler. The same could be said about Bam Adebayo.

It’s unfair to expect Kyle Lowry, at 36, to have the responsibility to improve the team. Nikola Jovic is a rookie and it’s unlikely he’ll see much playing time. Tyler Herro is likely going to be the team’s new starting shooting guard, but he was already playing productive basketball while essentially logging starter minutes. It’s not fair to expect him to average more than what he did last season.

Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, and Max Strus may be better but they have relatively low ceilings. They’re good role players and not much more. It would be unfair to place expectations on them.

That leaves the dark horse candidate that Oladipo is.

Oladipo, when fully healthy, has already proven that he can be a really good player and one that may be worthy of all-star status. He simply hasn’t been that since the injuries began to pile up a few years ago.

The question is, does he still have the potential in him? If he does, this might be the year when we finally see it again. And if he can tap into that form, perhaps it could be time for the narrative around the Heat to change once again.