As Heat move on to Plan V, Oladipo still working on regaining traction with footing

It is the role that Victor Oladipo seemingly would have coveted amid this long road back from injury, his name among those introduced first, the opportunity to serve as a fulcrum, play as a leading man.

And, yet, the 30-year-old Oladipo admitted, it all felt new and different when given the start in Wednesday night’s loss to the visiting Chicago Bulls.

No, it was not by design. Hardly. But with Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin sidelined, it basically left coach Erik Spoelstra turning to Plan D.

Or, more to the point, Plan V.

For Oladipo, it was his first regular-season start since being acquired by the Heat on March 25, 2021. There also was a start in last season’s opening round of the playoffs, when the Heat also were shorthanded.

“I love where Vic is right now,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat turning their attention to Friday’s visit by the Indiana Pacers, the second game of this four-game homestand. “I didn’t really want to do that [Tuesday]. I wanted to keep him progressing and gaining confidence in his role coming off the bench.

“But we had three starters out. At some point, I have to make a move and put him into the starting lineup. As it was, I was playing guys huge minutes.”

Oladipo played 34:14 in the loss, his longest stint since making his season debut on Nov. 6 in his return from preseason knee pain.

“I wouldn’t have done this with Vic [Tuesday] if it wasn’t clearly communicated with him and with the training staff and if we didn’t have two days after the last game, two days before the next game.

“But once we get fully healthy, I just want to continue to have him gain more confidence in his role off the bench, which he’s been doing great with.”

With Butler, Lowry and Tyler Herro the Heat’s starting wings, there is no apparent path to a starting role for Oladipo, unless the Heat were to even further downsize a starting lineup that has 6-5 Martin as the starting power forward.

So Oladipo took the moment for what it was, a one-game one-off.

“You know, it obviously is a little different,” Oladipo said. “I hadn’t been starting. I hadn’t really been starting and playing big minutes. It’s been an adjustment. But I had to go out there and do it to the best of my ability.

“Unfortunately we came up short. We got another game Friday, so you got to get ready for that one. Whoever’s ready, we got to go out there and play, no excuses.”

Oladipo closed 4 of 13 from the field against the Bulls, including 2 of 8 on 3-pointers.

“Just going out there and playing. It’s been obviously a different year for me, for the team, in general, just different,” Oladipo said of both his late start and the Heat’s revolving door of injuries. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got to keep trucking along, man. You got to keep fighting, keep playing and we’ll figure it out.”

With Lowry out the past three games and backup point guard Gabe Vincent missing the past eight with knee pain, it has had Oladipo playing more of a drive-and-kick game than he had in previous Heat appearances.

“Obviously I’ve been asked to do something, but not that much, in a while,” he said. “But it’s OK. It was good to like get my feet wet. It felt good doing more. Hopefully I continue to keep being better. So when I’m asked to do more, I’ll be ready.”

The constant in the former All-Star’s road back from years of injuries, surgeries and rehab stints has been an outlook of overcoming.

“I mean we all go to work and things aren’t necessarily the way we want them to be,” he said, “but we just got to go to work and do it to the best of your ability.

“I’ve been through too much to have any excuses for anything. So just get ready for the next game.”

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