Washington Wizards: 5 goals for Kelly Oubre Jr. in 2017-18
5. Improve his 3-point shooting
Kelly Oubre Jr. is expected to see whole lot more minutes in 2017-18 and with that comes more shots around the perimeter. This season, he’ll need to prepare himself to knock down a lot more of those opportunities to make this club a lethal one on offense.
Oubre Jr. shot 28.7 percent from 3-point range in 2016-17, a dip from his production in 2015-16, when he shot 31.6 percent from the arc. In his defense, he did see an uptick in the amount of 3-pointers he shot per game. Here’s a look at his numbers so far, via Basketball-Reference:
| Season | G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | 63 | 9 | 10.7 | 1.4 | 3.3 | .427 | 0.4 | 1.3 | .316 | 0.5 | 0.8 | .633 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 3.7 |
| 2016-17 | 79 | 5 | 20.3 | 2.4 | 5.6 | .421 | 0.7 | 2.4 | .287 | 0.9 | 1.3 | .758 | 0.8 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 6.3 |
| Career | 142 | 14 | 16.0 | 1.9 | 4.6 | .423 | 0.6 | 1.9 | .296 | 0.7 | 1.0 | .716 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 5.2 |
One of the biggest things Oubre Jr. worked on this offseason was his shooting mechanics. He hopes the minor tweak means an increase in shooting percentage. Given the emergence of Bradley Beal and Otto Porter from behind the 3-point line the past few seasons, optimists believe this is Oubre’s year to improve from 3-point range.
Wall, Beal and Porter are certain to get their points, but as they begin to draw more attention, Oubre will be one player looked upon to lighten the load on offense in 2017-18. As his attempts should go up, averaging over 30 percent from 3-point range is a reasonable goal to achieve for him. If he can get that number into the mid-30s, the Wizards would love that kind of development.