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After a sluggish start to the season, Golden State Warriors small forward Kelly Oubre Jr. has been able to turn things around. Recently, the 25-year-old opened up about his early-season struggles. He admitted how one specific factor had an adverse impact on his level of play.
According to Kelly Oubre, the money aspect of the game had him overthinking. The 6-foot-7 forward also came clean about letting the pressure of the same get to him:
“When I first got here, to the Warriors, I was feeding into all the pressure of the salary-cap stuff, the contract year,” he recently told The Athletic's Marcus Thompson. “You know, the new team that I would really love to make this a home for me in the future.
“I was kind of putting too much pressure onto myself.”
Kelly Oubre is set to pocket $14.4 million this season in what is the final year of his current contract. When the Dubs traded for him during the offseason, the team went over the salary cap and this required them to shell out no less than $68 million in taxes.
This was something that weighed heavily on Kelly Oubre, who then went on to share how he was able to get over the hump:
“When I got out of my head and I just put my focus and my energy into my craft and everything that was most important to me in my life, I think that’s when I knew I turned the corner,” he said.
For the month of February, Kelly Oubre averaged 20.1 points per game on 50.2 percent shooting. That's a far cry from his 12.0 points average in December and January while shooting on a 37.2-percent clip.
Clearly, Kelly Oubre has now been able to adjust to life with the Warriors. The question now is whether or not he will be able to sustain his high level of play the rest of the way.
