As per Marc Berman of the NY Post, the NY Knicks and Kelly Oubre have a mutual interest in joining forces come the offseason.
Oubre is a strong, bouncy, versatile wing that can play the 3 or the 4 and can start or come off the bench.
At face value, you would imagine that Kelly is an abysmal 3-point shooter, averaging under 32% from deep on the year.
This has a lot to do with the fact that to start the season, Oubre missed 28 of his first 30 shots from long-range.
For the month of December, he shot an atrocious 4.8% and in January he shot 27.5%.
Now, as Knicks fans, we know all about how a player can start off super slow and really pick things up over time.
RJ Barrett started off the season at a similar pace, missing 19 of his first 21 shots from deep, and finished the year at over 40%.
Should the NY Knicks target Kelly Oubre Jr in the offseason?
In the month of February, Oubre brought his shooting percentage up to 43% and at one point was shooting the ball better than his elite 3-point marksman teammate, Steph Curry.
Berman went on to say:
"According to one source, there is mutual interest between Oubre and the Knicks. The Knicks are one of the few teams who can offer him more than the $9.5 million mid-level exception.Oubre hasn’t reached his ceiling, and some scouts think being on three teams in five seasons hurt his growth."
While I do believe that being on so many teams really stunted Oubre Jr’s growth, the money he will demand could be spent more wisely elsewhere.
Oubre is a great ‘3 and D’ guy, but if he commands more than $14-15 million per season on a multi-year contract, personally I pass on that.
If they can get him for a fair deal, I guess I would have to learn to live with the idea.
Berman also went on to compare the Knicks to the Hawks last year in that they doubled-down on their star player in Trae Young and went on a spending spree to surround him with the best talent they could.
"Despite their 41-31 record, the Knicks need more outside shooting from the swingman position, as Atlanta busted them up in the playoffs. Atlanta added 3-point shooters in Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari – two players Thibodeau wanted.After being eliminated Wednesday, Thibodeau, in his last comments, noted the Hawks’ potent 2020 free agency.“Atlanta really added some good pieces to complement Trae (Young) and I think that helped them,’’ Thibodeau said. “You look at how you match up with the teams — you start with the division, then you look at the conference, then you look at the league. Then you see where you might have opportunities, whether it’s through the draft or free agency or trades, your own player development. All four areas factor into it.”"
I do think the Knicks should take an aggressive approach to the offseason, I am just not sure if Kelly Oubre Jr is the answer to their problems.