The Golden State Warriors are paying nearly four times Kelly Oubre Jr.’s contract price, and they aren’t getting nearly enough production from him.
Five games into the season, the Golden State Warriors are 2-3, winning two games over weaker Eastern Conference teams and also losing two to a couple of the best teams in the East and then to the Trail Blazers on the front end of two straight games in Portland.
While Andrew Wiggins struggled early on in the season, he’s since rebounded and helped the Warriors win. The same can’t be said of offseason addition Kelly Oubre Jr. He spent last season, the best of his career, in Phoenix.
The young guard was brought in to help fill the void left by Klay Thompson when he went down with a season-ending injury for the second straight season. Oubre Jr. still has the time and potential to partially fill that void.
So far, he hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations. Oubre Jr. is averaging 8.2 points per game this season, under half of what he notched with the Suns a year ago. It’s not even his scoring that’s most concerning but rather his shooting.
Oubre Jr. just hasn’t found his rhythm with the Warriors. He’s getting 32.3 percent of his shots while wide open. On those shots, he’s hitting just 10 percent, shooting 2-for-20 from the field. That’s a problem.
It gets even worse on shots that are just open. He’s hitting just 9.1 percent of those attempts. The majority of his attempts are when the defender is considered “tight,” which is before 2-4 feet. At least on those, he shoots 50 percent.
When they play high-level competition, the Warriors have gotten absolutely destroyed. That’s where the athleticism and competence of Oubre Jr. must start to factor in.
He needs to shoot better, and he’s getting the shots that he needs to be able to knockdown.