*Welcome to our Sixers player preview series, where in the weeks leading up to Media Day we will preview the upcoming 2025-26 season for each and every member of the Sixers' standard roster.*For each player, we will pose two key questions about their season before making a prediction.
The pressure is on after a miserable 24-58 campaign last season. After entering a year with championship aspirations and spending multiple months having to tank for the sake of a protected first-round pick, the Sixers have lost any and all benefit of the doubt that their signature season is finally coming.
It is safe to say there is a whole lot of work to do on the Sixers' end to prove the doubters wrong. Do they have a roster good enough to make it happen?
Up next: Kelly Oubre Jr., set to enter his third season with the Sixers after picking up his player option for 2025-26 worth just under $8.4 million. Oubre became a fan favorite in his first year with the Sixers, but with additional expectations last season came some ire despite the veteran swingman making some important changes to his game. How much can the Sixers rely on Oubre moving forward?
SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS
Jared McCain | Justin Edwards | VJ Edgecombe | Kyle Lowry | Kelly Oubre Jr.
Will Oubre's recent evolution continue?
Last season was Oubre's 10th in the NBA, and for better or worse, he has been just about the same player the whole way through. A few things have changed along the way -- his defensive intensity has notably increased since joining the Sixers, for example -- but he has largely been a high-volume, low-accuracy three-point shooter who tries with reckless abandon to utilize his above-the-rim athleticism. There have been plenty of tantalizing flashes and impressive stretches, but not a ton of prolonged stretches of impacting winning.
But by the time most Sixers fans had (understandably) checked out for the remainder of a hellish season, Oubre was beginning to implement some significant changes. He is an extremely prideful player, so alterations to a mentality he has used to spend a decade in the NBA were not going to come naturally. But Oubre's chaotic style got a bit too chaotic for Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, and Oubre was removed from the team's starting lineup. Plays like this were happening far too often:
Oubre took the benching to heart. Nurse told him he needed to learn how to play off of two feet as a driver. It would force him to slow down just a bit and see the floor much better as a result.
"Itwasjusttryingtogethimtomaketherightplay," Nurse said in February. "And getting totwofeetenableshimtodothatalotmore."
As Oubre started to make these changes, he earned his starting job back. His efficiency went up and his turnovers went down. He even started collecting some assists, not something he had ever done much of in the NBA. Oubre was playing in less important games as the season dwindled, but his improved decision-making stuck.
He will never be a perfect player; despite his admirably enormous confidence and self-belief, he is not a star. But he has the tools to star in his role -- if he can continue with a new outlook.
MORE: How a benching, talks with Nurse helped Oubre evolve
How reliable will Oubre be as a spot-up three-point shooter?
For someone who catches and fires away from beyond the arc as much as Oubre does, this is always going to be a critical question. The Sixers will hope the general variance that exists from season to season for each player swings in a favorable direction for Oubre. He is not going to make 40 percent of his three-point attempts; many of Oubre's long-range tries are from a step or two behind the three-point line over heavy contests.
Oubre's shot diet makes it nearly impossible for him as an individual to be efficient on his threes. But it has an unquantifiable impact on his team's floor spacing, and the Sixers have often lacked the sort of gravity that would enable him to be more selective. If the Sixers can get their entire idealized rotation on the floor at once, though, perhaps Oubre could spend more time slashing and reduce his three-point volume. His three-point percentage would undoubtedly go up.
If Oubre shoots a lot of threes and is in the 31 percent range that he has been in for the last three years, it is not a bad outcome by any means. But if he even got up to 34 or 35 percent from three-point range on the volume he has been at with the Sixers, his value would rise dramatically.
For what it's worth, Oubre said in his exit interview in April that he has never fully recovered from a hand surgery he received during his time with the Charlotte Hornets, and that he planned to see a "hand therapist" over the offseason to finally address it.
Prediction
Oubre remains the shooter he has always been -- high-volume, low-efficiency. His role-playing ability remains improved, and if the Sixers cannot stay healthy, he is a prime trade deadline candidate in February.
Because Oubre is now on a medium-sized expiring contract, he is a prime trade candidate no matter how the Sixers' season goes. If they are selling after months of struggles, Oubre holds little value for the remainder of the season, and if he is not having a poor season individually, plenty of teams would call about a wing with his defensive chops on an affordable expiring deal.
Meanwhile, if the Sixers are experiencing a strong year-to-year turnaround and enter the trade deadline looking to upgrade their roster, Oubre's expiring is far and away their strongest tool to do so. Of course, Oubre could very well be an important part of such a resurgence for the organization, which would have to weigh the loss of his services versus the potential benefits of acquiring players in his salary range.
Is Oubre going to be a player who ever puts a team over the top at the trade deadline? Likely not. But if the Sixers end up positioned to move him, Oubre can help lots of teams.
MORE: Which Sixers are most likely to be traded?
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