© Kyle Terada | 2020 Dec 17
What could make Kelly Oubre’s extremely tough start to his Warriors’ career even tougher? How about rumors that they’re looking to trade him just 17 games in.
That was the buzz on Tuesday following a Shams Charania report in The Athletic that the Warriors were in talks with the Pelicans regarding a possible deal involving Oubre. The report did say the discussions have been preliminary in nature.
Still, it could be enough to throw the struggling Oubre into a tailspin. Instead, it did the opposite. Oubre had the best game of his young Warriors career on Wednesday, posting a line of 20 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in another easy win vs. the Wolves.
After the game, Steve Kerr was asked about the rumors and if he talked to Oubre about them.
“I talked to him. It’s unfortunate,” Kerr said of the rumor. “Team called us and asked about him. Didn’t even make an offer, asked about Kelly. Next thing we know it’s online. This is sort of the modern NBA, modern life.
“I told Kelly today, this is where you earn your money. The basketball part is the easy part. Packing up your family and leaving. Getting injured, getting booed, or reading your name in trade rumors. Those things are not easy. I was really proud of Kelly. He handled it really well. We texted this afternoon and then I told him just now how proud I was, because it’s not easy to play through that stuff. He came in and had one of his best games and was really the key to us gaining traction in that second quarter.”
Oubre spoke about the conversation as well.
“It was a great conversation. I was really blessed to hear from him in the midst of something that’s very controversial in one’s life just because you want to be comfortable, you just want to play the game of basketball and not have any stresses, but at the end of the day it’s a business. Coach has been through it, just like we all have. For him to just reach out and talk me through it has been great.
“It did not affect my game tonight. At the end of the day I’m a Warrior. Let’s get this fucking win.”