Kelly Oubre Jr. had yet another season of showing up consistently when the Sixers’ competitiveness was often all over the place.
In 31.5 minutes per game through the regular season, he averaged 14.1 points on a career-high 58 true shooting percentage, 5.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals. Oubre’s well and truly proven his strengths over his tenure with the Sixers now. The athleticism — paired with his consistent energy — has been such a welcome addition. He can effectively defend forwards and a range
of guards with his size, lateral quickness and physicality, being able to take on pretty tough assignments at either position.
And despite not always taking the best shots himself, he did improve his shot diet with a higher frequency of threes this season (up from 32.7 percent of his total field goal attempts in 2024-25 to 43.9 percent this year). He provides quality cutting, finishing, transition play, and enough downhill scoring as a driver to complement the team’s stars in a variety of ways. He just had his best three-point shooting year yet, making a career-high 36 percent of his 4.8 attempts per game. That increased three-point volume did mean his attempts at the rim dropped somewhat, yet he still made a highly accurate 68.9 percent of his attempts within three feet. With his confidence, explosiveness, size and finishing, Oubre is still a threat attacking downhill.
Shooting slumps in a small sample can obviously happen any time, and unfortunately for Oubre it struck in this year’s playoffs. Oubre had space to fire from three but only hit 25.6 percent (10-of-39) of his attempts in the postseason. That’ll always be the swing factor that turns Oubre from being a starter-level piece of this team to someone who’d you’d maybe rather play 25-30 minutes off the bench.
Now, as Oubre gets into another summer of training, he wants to continue building on the shooting work he did last offseason. The plan is to take what he believes led him to some improvement and go a step further. He wants to introduce even more game-like situations in training to polish his shooting as much as possible, and continue working on his IQ, making reads, and seeing how plays can develop before they happen.
“Every year that I’ve come into this league, I’ve learned something, and I’ve grown in some areas,” Oubre summarised when speaking to reporters after the season ended. “So I want to continue that trend.”
Beyond his training focuses, the future is uncertain right now for Oubre. He’s set to hit free agency now that his great value two-year, $16.3 million contract is up. Keeping him for something close to that would be ideal for the Sixers’ wing depth.
When speaking at the end of the season, there was plenty for Oubre to reflect on. He certainly sounded interested in staying, but he’s unsure what to expect from free agency.
“I haven’t really been able to decompress, but I would say we took a step forward from the efforts that we put out last year,” Oubre said when looking back at how the season ended. “I think that we were able to build some form of camaraderie, some form of brotherhood throughout our trials and tribulations this year. And that’s all you can kind of ask for.
“And I would say I can’t really give it a grade, but I had fun. I enjoyed all my teammates. Everybody’s an amazing human being and a brother to me. And it just stings to go out like this, but at the end of the day, man, we made sure that we kept tight huddles throughout it all, because we’re all in this together.”
“I love my guys,” Oubre said to cap off his reflection of the team.
He also expressed how much he feels he learned this season.
“The game of basketball has reinvented itself to me through different lenses and different eyes throughout my tenure here. And I’m forever appreciative for the opportunity to play for the city. And obviously I don’t like how I ended. So I always say, I like to finish what I start. And this is a bit sour for me, but at the end of the day, man, it’s already written. God already has it written up upstairs, and it’s just gonna follow through. So I hope I did myself a good service by being more efficient, slowing down, and just playing better overall basketball. And just continue to grow as a human being and as a player.”
Given Oubre’s been in the league 11 years, played on five different teams, and has already earned over $80 million in that time, it’s only fair that Oubre is thinking a lot about his family in all this as well. When asked about what he’s hoping for in a free agency situation and what his priority is, he made it clear how much his family and stability will factor into his decision.
“Somewhere where I’m loved, just somewhere where my family can be comfortable,” he said when describing what he’s after. “I have a family now. So it’s not like I’m thinking for myself and being able to do spontaneous stuff, right? So I just want my kids to have some somewhere that they can call home. I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna grind with my hard hat on and go to work. But what I do is for my family, and I just want them to be stable somewhere and to not have to worry about anything when it comes to their lives, being uprooted and figuring out things on the fly.”
Staying in Philadelphia would certainly tick the stability box for Oubre and his family. It would give him stability from a career standpoint as well. To continue in a role where he’s finding increased success as an important factor on the team.
Even if the Sixers want to try saving a little on Oubre’s annual salary, perhaps offering him a longer term contract — let’s say three years — is the way to give him the stability he seeks and keep the team’s salary cap and possible apron issues in check.
Oubre may not be able to repeat the increased three-point success he had in 2025-26, but he has improved his composure on offense. That plus his drive game, versatile defense, work on the glass, and athletic energy all around makes him a player worth keeping. If the Sixers can sell Oubre on the value of stability, staying with a team he loves, and (potentially) a contract with more years in free agency over a shorter more expensive deal elsewhere, perhaps this partnership can continue working for both sides.
