Hornets add high-scoring forward Kelly Oubre Jr. Why this signing is so important
The Charlotte Hornets are adding another small forward to the mix.
Kelly Oubre Jr. is heading to Charlotte on a two-year deal worth north of $26 million, Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes reported early Friday morning.
Oubre, 25, averaged 15.4 points and 6 rebounds with the Golden State Warriors last season after spending the previous two seasons with the Phoenix Suns. He has six years of NBA experience and played college basketball at Kansas.
The move will give the Hornets needed depth at small forward behind Gordon Hayward after their 2020-21 season crumbled in the aftermath of Hayward’s foot injury suffered April 2 in a win at the Indiana Pacers. The Hornets left that game in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings at 25-23 but went 8-16 the rest of the way with Hayward sidelined and missed the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season.
Hayward (19.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists) was Charlotte’s second-leading scorer behind Terry Rozier. They also lost their No. 3 scorer, rookie LaMelo Ball (15.7 ppg), for much of the second half of the season and were forced to piece together different lineups, desperate to find a way to generate offense.
The addition of the 6-foot-7 Oubre should help the Hornets not only sustain through any injuries to their forward rotation — which includes power forwards P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges — but but give them flexibility with a deeper bench to not be in so many close-game situations. Eighteen of the Hornets’ games last season were decided by five points or fewer.
The Hornets are also trying to make up for the losses of Devonte’ Graham and Malik Monk, who averaged 14.8 points and 11.7 points, respectively, last season.
Oubre is an athletic slasher, who cuts to the basket well and could feed off passing guards like Ball. Oubre could also play in a smaller ball lineup and perhaps start — similarly to how he played with the Golden State Warriors. He has started in 105 of his last 111 games.
“The more shooting you can put around Melo, the more athleticism you can put around Melo, the better,” Hornets coach James Borrego said Wednesday in a Zoom call with reporters.
The Hornets added some of that with Oubre.
Where Oubre struggled during the 2020-21 season was his consistency from 3. He shot 31.6% from behind the 3-point line for the season.
His best season, though, was the 2019-20 season with Phoenix, when he averaged 18.7 points per game and 6.4 rebounds.
Oubre will become the second pickup for the Hornets in free agency. On Tuesday, they agreed to a one-year deal with Charlotte native Ish Smith, a veteran point guard.
Borrego said adding a veteran presence would be one of the primary focus for the Hornets this offseason.
“This is a very young group, and as you grow and develop, you need to have some veterans around you that hold you accountable, they push you forward, they keep the locker room in tact,” he said. “They keep us all in line. Only veterans can do that ... We’re losing some veterans out there in (Cody) Zeller and some other guys that we need to replace. For those young guys to grow and develop, we’ve got to have a presence in the locker room to allow us to grow at the right pace.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 12:48 AM.
