Reviewing Kelly Oubre’s first game with Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors won their first pre-season game against the Denver Nuggets with a final score of 107-105. With new additions to the team, this Warriors squad is looking good already.

The Golden State Warriors off-season was full of surprises, including another injury to star shooting guard Klay Thompson. The 30-year-old missed all of last season due to a torn ACL from the 2019 NBA finals against the Toronto Raptors. Now, he will miss another full season with a torn Achilles. Thompson was set to play at the start of the year until an injury during a workout prevented him from playing in 2021.

With the wing spot now at a disadvantage overall, the Warriors needed to do something and quick. Golden State got the Thompson injury news hours before the NBA draft, so many thought they would go a different direction with their pick. Instead, the Warriors stated the course and drafted James Wiseman. The 19-year-old center will be a cornerstone for the franchise’s future, and fans cannot wait to see him. However, there was still a need on the wing and with training camp coming up fast the Warriors needed to do something. So, they traded for Kelly Oubre Jr. from the Thunder and got a pretty good deal.

Kelly Oubre fits well with this team and is almost the same kind of player as Thompson but at a much lower level. He can defend well and shoot the ball effectively. Although, Oubre is a lot more athletic than Thompson and probably a better rebounder. We are talking about one of the greatest shooters of all time in Thompson, a role that will be very hard to make up.

So now one more question looms for Golden State—How does Kelly Oubre fit with this team? And how did he look in their first game? Well, let’s go ahead and break that down right now.

Kelly Oubre’s Warriors Debut

Kelly Oubre fit in perfectly with this squad and left his Mark on the game already. A guy who will hustle every play and knock down open shots is exactly what Golden State is looking for and that’s exactly what they got. Even in his debut, he seemed to do everything right and even had some key plays in his 22 minutes of run.

Now Oubre did struggle a little shooting the ball in this one, but that is something that won’t be permanent. Last season with Phoenix, Oubre shot 35% from three in five attempts. Therefore, he is capable of being a good shooter. He showed it on his first make from the corner, with a good looking form.

Oubre finished with ten points in his Warriors pre-season debut. Along with that he grabbed four rebounds and showed his ability to play great defense.

Rebounding and defense are both huge skills of Oubre’s. His athleticism allows him to get vertices for grabbing rebounds and contesting shots. While playing help defense, we were able to see Kelly Ou re’s ability to recover and get a block on a dunk attempt.

If the Warriors can continue to get consistent effort and production from him, it will make the transition back to contenders so much easier. It would also make Stephen Curry and Draymond Green’s job a lot less stressful.