Golden State Warriors: Kelly Oubre Jr. can change tides of the season

Even with Stephen Curry balling at an MVP level, the Golden State Warriors can only go as far as their supporting cast allows. This was on full display last night, when Curry erupted for 57 points i a loss against Dallas. While we’ve seen a few players stand out occasionally, but none have been as night and day as Kelly Oubre. After dropping his career-high in their previous match, Oubre only scored 14 points on 5-16 shooting.

The Warriors didn’t take much of a risk acquiring Oubre. A pair of future draft picks helped the Dubs trade for Oubre before the season began. At the time, this seemed like an obvious win for the Warriors. But, after Oubre opened up the year horrendously bad from the field, we began to have our doubts.

Kelly Oubre Jr. had a horrific start to the season but now he has a chance to change the tides for the Golden State Warriors.

No exaggeration, Oubre has been the worst 3-point shooter in the NBA through the first quarter of the season. He shot below 30 percent on ‘wide-open‘ attempts and was chucking brick after brick as the Warriors struggled against stronger teams.

The Warriors can overcome Oubre’s shortcomings on offense due to his strong perimeter defense – and the fact that Curry is a supernova offensive talent in his own right. This, combined with the playmaking of Draymond Green and the emergence of shot creation from Andrew Wiggins, allowed the Dubs to handle weaker opponents with ease.

However, Golden State stands no chance against top-tier teams if Oubre is a detriment from the 3-point line. It’s tough enough to play Green during dry spells on offense due to his lack of shooting, but having both Oubre and Green on the court at the same time is dreadful for the offense.

Oubre has never been a lethal shooter. For his career, he shoots just 32.4 percent. Yet, coming off a career-high 35.2 percent shooting season in Phoenix – we had hoped for a bit more accuracy from the young forward.

He finally broke out of his slump by dropping 40 points on 7-of-10 shooting from deep against Dallas. Yet, a game later he fell back into his old patterns. Hopefully, we see the start of a more efficient Oubre as the Warriors approach the second half of the season. A streaky Oubre could make the difference between missing and reaching the playoffs.