Kelly Oubre is excited about this season after signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. Oubre is with his fifth team in the NBA after playing with the Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, and most recently, the Charlotte Hornets.
Oubre is coming off a career-best 20.3 points per game last season with Charlotte. However, the Hornets’ season didn’t go as planned, much like Oubre’s other stops.
Oubre noted the difference between the 76ers and his previous four teams.
“This team wins every year, right? The fan base wants them to win more, but I come from teams where they have no hope. Like zero hope within the whole city, and that’s not this at all. So I appreciate the fan base for being hard on the team,” Oubre said, per 76ers’ staff writer Sean Barnard.
Of course, Oubre’s comment will strike a chord with the Wizards, Suns, and Warriors’ fan bases.
The Warriors have won four NBA championships and appeared in six NBA Finals since 2014. Unfortunately, the year Oubre played with Golden State (2020-21), the Warriors were in a rough stretch. Golden State had its worst campaign the previous season with injuries to its legendary core, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.
Thompson missed the entire season. Despite Curry averaging 32.6 points per game, the Warriors didn’t look like the championship-winning Warriors before getting bounced from the play-in tournament with back-to-back losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies.
Oubre signed a two-year deal with the Hornets the next offseason. The Warriors won their fourth NBA championship that season with Oubre in Charlotte.
The Suns were a cesspool when the Wizards traded Oubre to the Suns. Oubre’s first year in Phoenix (2018-19), the Suns finished with an NBA-worst 19-63 record. In his second year, the Suns improved to 34-39 during the COVID-19-impacted season.
Phoenix reached the NBA Finals the following season after Oubre joined the Hornets. The Suns’ last two seasons have been viewed as a disappointment despite making back-to-back playoff appearances after their run to the Finals. This season, the Suns have NBA title hopes after acquiring Oubre’s former Wizards teammate Bradley Beal.
And that takes Oubre’s comment at the 76ers Media Day to Washington. The Wizards acquired him in a draft day trade in 2015. That year, Washington was coming off back-to-back appearances in the Conference semifinals.
There was a lot of hope in Washington for Oubre’s rookie season. The Wizards went 41-41 and fell short of expectations, missing the postseason. However, they won 49 games the following season and made the playoffs before a Game 7 loss in the Conference semifinals to the Boston Celtics.
The Wizards’ expectations got altered only because of an Achilles injury to superstar John Wall during the 2018-19 season, which ultimately led to Oubre getting traded to Phoenix.
Kelly Oubre may want to be cautious about his Media Day proclamation. The 76ers have been on a stretch of winning recently, but he forgets when he entered the league, Philadelphia was trusting a process. That process has grown into expectations of winning a title behind NBA MVP Joel Embiid.
Yet, this season, the 76ers are cautiously optimistic amid the drama surrounding disgruntled star James Harden. Harden wants to be traded, preferably to the Los Angeles Clippers. The situation has cast a dark cloud over Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics have become better with the additions of Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, respectfully. Oubre shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch just yet.
