Player Facts
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 203lbs.
Date of Birth: Dec. 9, 1995
College Experience: Kansas (1 year)
Selections
All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0
Player Grades
Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 6
Positional Size: 7
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 8
Midrange Scoring: 6
Three-Point Scoring: 5
Dribbling: 8
Passing: 3
Perimeter Defense: 8
Interior Defense: 6
Rebounding: 5
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STRENGTHS
Intro
The 6-foot-6 Kelly Oubre Jr. is a dynamic slashing wing. He also has plus length in the form of a 7’2.25” wingspan. Defensively, the swingman can really make a positive difference when fully engaged.
High-Energy Offense
Kelly plays with good energy on the offensive end. He cuts hard, crashes the glass, and looks to finish among the giants. While it can sometimes be a negative thing, Oubre Jr. rarely gets deterred by defenders once he has his sights set on the rim.
The 6’6” Oubre can play three different offensive positions with a deal of comfort. Regardless of the positional designation, Kelly looks to get downhill with the ball in his hands. He likes to get a step on his man via a ball screen before attacking the sagged big head-on.
Slash-to-Score
The Kansas product has an intuitive feel for how to knife his way to the hole, with the athleticism to actualize these instincts and ideas. For instance, he’s mastered the toggling of his burst in conjunction with a tight handle. Oubre now utilizes multiple hesi’s until he senses the moment has arrived to turn on the jets.
2024-2025 saw him score quite often while playing the role of screen-and-roll initiator. Through mostly his aggressive takes to the tin, Kelly scored 117 points here in his 60 games. He also finished in the better half of the league in terms of playtype productivity percentile.
His main change-up he’ll use in pick-and-roll sequences is a little midranger. Kelly will pull on a close-range jumper if he gets his man sprinting to keep up. Oubre Jr. can stop on a dime, then elevate quickly before his defender can recover to contest.
Easy Bounce
At the cup, he has effortless bounce. Kelly may not quite be the freak athlete that Giannis Antetokounmpo or Ja Morant are, but he’s not far off. Oubre Jr. is liable to drive hard and then pack it right over the rim protector with force.
He gets up off the hardwood so quickly that he often simply beats a shot-blocker to the summit. Add in his length, big vertical, and finishing fearlessness, and you get a boatload of highlight slams.
Getting Out and Running
That great athleticism serves as a springboard for Kelly’s transition value. He leaks out quickly for outlet passes from his teammates. His ability to dunk over people allows for the two points to be secured even when solid transition defense is played.
He provided 3.3 transition points nightly across the 2024-2025 season in Philly. Back in Phoenix 2019-2020, he caught hit-aheads from Ricky Rubio, Devin Booker, and Mikal Bridges, scoring 282 open court points. That was a larger total than De’Aaron Fox, Zach LaVine and and Jayson Tatum.
Athletic Rim Finishing
By the numbers, Oubre is an above-average finisher at the rim. The incredible dunker finished 63.1% of his at-the-basket shots in 2023-2024 then 66.6% in 2024-2025.
Kelly’s attack-first mindset in both the half-court and the open court allow for some value-adding foul-drawing. He’s notched multiple seasons shooting north of 3.5 free throws per-36. Oubre is an accurate shooter when there.
Off-Ball Play
Oubre Jr. can play away from the ball for a couple of reasons. While not a great shooter, he attacks closeouts very well. His first step is outstanding as he launches himself to the hoop.
More importantly, however, is his prolific basket cutting. He scored 119 points off cuts in 2024-2025, good for the 91st percentile. Besides basket-bound cuts, he can curl into free space and rapidly make something happen on-the-catch.
All-Defensive Upside
When locked in, the former Jayhawk can be a terrific defender. His best asset is arguably his man defense. All the physical tools are there to check positions 1 through 3 with a high degree of effectiveness.
Kelly can smoothly switch on DHO’s and pistol actions because of his comfort guarding all sorts of perimeter players.
He rarely gets targeted by the opposition, with his only physical weakness being a relatively light frame. Other than that, his height, length, lateral mobility, closing speed, and bounce are all very good.
Examining the advanced statistics, Kelly’s iso defense stands strong. He allowed 0.86 points per isolation play back in 2019-2020. This was a stingier figure than Khris Middleton, Jimmy Butler, and Gary Harris. 2024-2025 as a Sixer some some extended stretches of defensive brilliance - landing in the 82nd percentile for iso defense.
Events Creation
His second-best defensive gift may very well be his defensive playmaking. He tends to give you 2+ stocks (steals + blocks) per night as long as the minutes are there. He anticipates well enough for him to make use of that great athleticism as he pounces on passing lanes.
The shot-blocking at 6’6” is nothing short of impressive. He can soak up short, or even long stretches on the backline of a defense. Kelly has a strong feel for when to ditch his man and dart over for the potential swat.
WEAKNESSES
Unreliable Jump Shooting
While the shot looks fine, Kelly is a far too streaky perimeter shooter. On-ball, the one-dribble pull-up off the pick is not really in his game. Off-ball, he shot only 34.4% on catch-and-shoot threes in 2019-2020 and even worse the season prior. He fell below 30% on all triple tries in 2024-2025.
Lefty Dominance + Low Assist Output
He is nowhere near an ambidextrous finisher on the inside. Without a dependable right hand, Kelly will look to force the lefty finish when it doesn’t make all that much sense. This imbalance surfaces within his floater game as well.
A better playmaking toolkit is expected of a starting-level NBA wing. Oubre flashes some nice higher-level reads, but his facilitation is not necessarily scalable. Seldom does he “think pass” when attacking out of the pick-and-roll or when generally driving the basketball.
His assist totals are criminally low season-after-season. With the ball in his hands a decent amount, he’s not lacking in opportunity to create for others. However, his assist-to-turnover ratios tend to be around zero if not negative.
Questions of Defensive Discipline
If Kelly decided to play all-out on defense on a nightly basis, he could make an All-Defensive team. Like many players, however, the compete level is not as consistent as it could be. The difference with Kelly is that his ceiling is so tantalizing as a versatile wing stopper.
When Oubre does make his defensive assignment a personal mission, he struggles with curbing his aggression.
This manifests as some foolish fouls from time to time. His bloated 3.6 fouls per-36 minutes was higher than premier rim protectors Rudy Gobert, Myles Turner, and Brook Lopez (2019-2020). He’s remained up over 3 fouls/36 from 2021 to 2025.
Thinness prevents him from guarding the league’s bigger wings/some fours. Similar-height guys like Grant Williams and Guerschon Yabusele can afford to guard up a position or two thanks to their robust frames. At just a smidge over 200 pounds, Kelly cannot always get away with guarding up a spot.
Players Appearing Here – Check Out Their Profiles
- Giannis Antetokounmpo [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Ja Morant [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Ricky RubioOpens in a new tab
- Devin Booker [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Mikal Bridges [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- De'Aaron Fox [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Zach LaVineOpens in a new tab
- Jayson Tatum [Coming Soon]Opens in a new tab
- Khris Middleton [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Jimmy Butler [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
- Gary HarrisOpens in a new tab
- Aaron GordonOpens in a new tab
- Myles TurnerOpens in a new tab
- Terry Rozier [PATREON]Opens in a new tab
