Pacers at Cavaliers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, FSI

INDIANAPOLIS – The city’s newest superstar was pointing to his chest, and then to the floor of the Indiana Pacers’ home arena. If that wasn’t clear enough, Victor Oladipo started shouting above the bedlam created by his game-winning 3-pointer against San Antonio.

“This is my city,” he said Sunday, sneering and jutting out his jaw and then saying it again. “My city.”

And you know, he might just be right. This is a city that wants to love him, and to be loved in return. Paul George spent seven years here and never did love us back. Victor Oladipo? He’s been here seven games, and he already does. Hell, he already did. Oladipo, who played three seasons at IU, says “this city and this state is special to me, like my second home.”

Oladipo plays with charismatic speed and swagger, dunking Tuesday night on each of the Sacramento Kings’ two best shot-blockers, 7-0 Willie Cauley-Stein and 6-11 Skal Labissiere. Both dunks came in the first half of the Pacers’ 101-83 blowout victory, on baseline cuts where teammate Domantas Sabonis found Oladipo roaring toward the rim.

Speaking of Oladipo and Sabonis …

It’s too soon to call a winner in the Paul George trade, but the early returns are overwhelming: We got it wrong, all of us, local and national media who said the Pacers lost that June 30 trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Some IndyStar idiot decided the Pacers were “fleeced” for getting only Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis in return. And I was – er, that idiot was – wrong. About everything. Including the name of the trade.

The Paul George trade? Please. Let’s call that deal what it is:

The Victor Oladipo trade.

Now, let’s say these things and let’s mean every word, but let’s also acknowledge: It’s early. The blowout Tuesday of Sacramento was merely the Pacers’ seventh game since the Victor Oladipo trade. Given the fourth quarter off, Oladipo scored 14 points to lower his season average to 23.9 ppg, while Sabonis had 12 points and 16 rebounds to push his season averages to 12.9 ppg and 11 rpg.

After six games with the Thunder, Paul George is averaging 19.5 ppg.

Maybe you saw, back in June when the Victor Oladipo trade happened, a clever piece of social media authored by the Oklahoma City Police Department:

Thanks for the tweets reporting the "theft" of Paul George by @okcthunder.

Our investigative findings: totally legal & very savvy.

Someone got robbed in the Victor Oladipo trade, but it wasn’t the Pacers. Again, things could change. Paul George’s numbers could creep up, though I suspect this is who PG is there: third fiddle to Carmelo Anthony (23.8 ppg) and Russell Westbrook (20.8 ppg).

Or Victor Oladipo might not be quite the player we’ve seen for seven games. He's shooting 45.7 percent on 3-pointers, well above his 34.9-percent career rate. Hard to believe he won’t cool down somewhat.

But let me tell you what’s impossible to believe: that the Victor Oladipo we’re seeing is a complete hoax. His numbers could slip – his scoring average is 8.0 ppg above his 15.9-ppg career average – but they won’t fall off a cliff. There are reasons to believe that, but before we go there, let’s go into the Pacers locker room. Let’s ask those guys:

Is this the real Victor Oladipo, or is he going to come back to earth?

Said Pacers coach Nate McMillan: “No, I think this can be Victor. He has the potential I think to be one of the top players (in the league).”

And Sabonis: “This is Vic. I knew that when I got traded with him. He just needed a team where he’s feeling comfortable in his role.”

Now, to Oladipo. Let’s ask him if we’re seeing the real Victor Oladipo, or if he’s going to come back to –

“That’s a dumb question,” interjects Myles Turner, a player I really liked until this moment. “This is who he is. I’ll answer it for him.”

I look at Oladipo, eyebrows raised. And he says: “I come to work every day and prepare myself to go out there and play as hard as I can for as long as I can, and to do it every game. So yeah, this is who I am.”

Truth be told, Oladipo is more special than Nate McMillan had anticipated.

“We thought he was fast,” McMillan said, “but no, I didn’t see him (being this fast). There’s a few guys in the league that have the speed he has.”

Teague speed, I suggest, referencing the fastest Pacer from last season (Jeff Teague).

“Yeah – Teague,” McMillan said. “And I would say (John) Wall.”

Oladipo can be a one-man fast break, ripping down a defensive rebound and finishing at the other end, but on occasion he goes too fast. He averages more turnovers (3.5) than assists (3.2), and McMillan said some of that comes from Oladipo trying to use his speed when the opening isn’t there.

“Slow down,” McMillan will tell Oladipo when game film shows him attacking three or four defenders.

What else negative can be said of Oladipo, seven games into his time with the Pacers? Maybe this: He’ll come back to reality. Unless this is reality, his new one. He was a fine player at Orlando but he was young, just 22 when he averaged 17.9 ppg, and soon he was traded to Oklahoma City. With Westbrook dominating the ball, Oladipo averaged 15.9 ppg last season.

When Pacers president Kevin Pritchard acquired Oladipo, he was thinking – maybe knowing – that Oladipo was more than his career 15.9-ppg scoring average. It doesn’t happen often, but there is precedent for a player with an expanded role to make a scoring leap this large in his new surroundings. In the late 1970s Lloyd Free was a complementary piece with the 76ers, the fourth-leading scorer at 15.7 ppg behind Julius Erving, George McGinnis and Doug Collins. Traded to the star-free Clippers, Free changed his name (to World B. Free) and game, averaging 28.8 and 30.2 ppg over the next two seasons.

At the time of that trade, Free was the same age as Oladipo (25).

More recently, and much more relevantly, another player freed from the shadow of Russell Westbrook reinvented himself on his new team. You remember James Harden at OKC, right? Playing his first three seasons with Westbrook and Kevin Durant, Harden averaged 9.9, 12.2 and 16.8 ppg. He was traded to Houston in 2012 at age 23, and has averaged 27.4 ppg since.

So, it happens. Is it happening again right here, right now, with Victor Oladipo? We’ll see. Asked if Oladipo can remain a 25-ppg scorer, McMillan said “he can be up there,” but later re-set the bar.

“I think he can be a triple-double type guy,” McMillan said. “You know, some things Westbrook was doing. (Oladipo) told me he had four or five triple-doubles in his career. We should see more of those.”

Oladipo isn’t saying what we’ll see tomorrow. But whatever it is we’re seeing today, he says, it’s legit.

“I believe everything happens for a reason,” he said, talking about the Victor Oladipo trade. “My path prepared me for now. I’m more ready than ever.”

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter: @GreggDoyelStar or at facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

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