Victor Oladipo is an All-Star, and he's 'sick and tired' of your Paul George comparisons

Following the trade of franchise player Paul George this past summer, the Indiana Pacers were supposed to be terrible. The deal that sent their four-time All-Star to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis was roundly mocked for falling well short of equal value.

Now, a third of the way into their first post-George season, the Pacers are 16-11, owners of the Eastern Conference’s fourth-best record, thanks in large part to Oladipo and Sabonis. But especially Oladipo.

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The Indiana University product scored a career-high 47 points on 15-of-28 shooting on Sunday night, adding seven rebounds and six assists in a 126-116 overtime victory against the Denver Nuggets. The Pacers trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half, but they rallied with a 20-0 run that spanned the final eight points of regulation and the first 12 over overtime, including 12 points from Oladipo.

This came two days after Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue dubbed Oladipo “definitely an All-Starbefore his 33 points, eight rebounds and five assists opposite LeBron James helped end the Cavs’ 13-game win streak. Sunday’s showing then brought “MVP” chants from the Indiana crowd in overtime.

Now due to face George and company when the Thunder make their only appearance of the season at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Wednesday night, the comparisons are only coming more fast and furious.

I mean, just look at this:

• 2017-18 Oladipo: 24.5 points (59.7 true shooting percentage), 5.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 combined blocks and steals per game (23.5 player efficiency rating).

• 2016-17 George: 23.7 points (58.7 true shooting percentage), 5.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.1 combined blocks and steals per game (20.2 player efficiency rating).

Like it or not, Oladipo will forever be measured against George in Indiana. And he doesn’t like it:

“I’m kind of getting sick and tired of the comparisons with Paul George and myself,” Oladipo told reporters after Sunday’s victory, via the Indianapolis Star’s Clifton Brown. “He’s moved on. I moved on from the situation that I was in. Life takes its course, things happen. I’m happy here, he’s happy there. I wish him all the best. I’m feathery, right here as a Pacer. I don’t have no disrespect towards him, or what happened. I’m just grateful, and honored, to put on this jersey every night.”

You can see how it would be tiring for a 25-year-old enjoying a career year to continuously be cast in the shadow of an All-NBA and All-Defensive talent who led the same organization to back-to-back Eastern Conference semifinal appearances earlier in the decade. It’s also one heck of a compliment.

Oladipo ranks fifth in the league in steals per game (1.8), 10th in scoring and 15th in 3-point shooting (44.4 percent) — all numbers as good or better than anything George ever produced in Indiana. Advanced statistics are just as favorable for the fifth-year player, as the former No. 2 overall pick ranks eighth in the NBA in usage rate (30.9), 12th in Value Over Replacement Player (1.4), 15th in PER and 18th in Box Plus/Minus (4.3) — all better than George this season, according to Basketball Reference.

Meanwhile, the Pacers own the NBA’s sixth-best offensive rating (108.3 points per 100 possessions) and eighth-best net rating (plus-2.4 per 100 possessions). Indiana hasn’t owned a top-10 offense since George was a second-year role player, and their net rating hasn’t been that high since those conference finalist teams had George and Roy Hibbert working as All-Stars in the 2013-14 season.

Nobody imagined this when the Pacers finally pulled the trigger on a George deal on the eve of free agency. Just about everyone painted Indiana’s haul as nothing more than the salary dump of the four years and $84 million left on Oladipo’s contract. (And we haven’t even mentioned Sabonis, who is now giving the Pacers 12.1 points (60.1 true shooting percentage), 8.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.)

We all had reason to believe Oladipo was an inefficient player, because there was four years of pretty solid evidence to this from the Orlando Magic and Thunder. So, credit to new Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard, because fewer than 30 games into the trade, we can feel pretty comfortable applauding Indiana’s return for a player who had only one year remaining on his contract and made it clear to the organization he had no plans on re-signing. Oladipo, it seems, is well worth that contract.

And from the sound of it, the Pacers are pretty pleased with how things turned out:

“He’s all about team,” Indiana coach Nate McMillan said of Oladipo following Sunday’s game. “I think what you have seen this season is not selfish play. He’s playing within the framework of our team. He’s moving the ball, but he’s taking and making big shots. This is what we were hoping to develop, this type of player that in the future will be a franchise player.”

McMillan’s praise came with more plaudits like, “He’s just such a pleasure to work with,” which combined with the coach’s criticism of George’s leadership (“You take care of you, and I take care of me”) could certainly be interpreted as another comparison between the two in Oladipo’s favor.

All of which makes George’s homecoming on Wednesday night even more fascinating, especially if Oladipo is afforded the opportunity to break out his signature “this is my house” celebration.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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