Sixers Starter Lays Out Expectations for Upcoming Free Agency

What's Kelly Oubre looking for in free agency after a run with the Philadelphia 76ers?

May 2, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (9) reacts in / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia 76ers are entering the 2024 offseason much earlier than expected. Going into the 2023-2024 regular season, the team hoped for a championship run. Six games into the playoffs, the New York Knicks cut the Sixers’ season short.

A handful of players plan to hit free agency this summer. The veteran Kelly Oubre is one of them.

Throughout the summer of 2023, the Sixers pursued Oubre following his run with the Charlotte Hornets. As the veteran wanted to take more time than usual to decide on his future, the Sixers couldn’t ink Oubre until closer to training camp.

When the two sides agreed to link forces, the Sixers landed Oubre on a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum. It didn’t take long for the Sixers to find out that they had one of the best bargain signings of the season in Oubre.

While an unfortunate off-court injury took Oubre out for a stretch of games early on, he managed to appear in 68 games for the Sixers. Although he was initially expected to be a reserve, Oubre played himself into the starting lineup more often than not, drawing 52 starts while averaging 30 minutes on the court.

May 2, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers guard Kelly Oubre Jr. warms up / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

During the regular season, Oubre produced an average of 15 points, five rebounds, and two assists while shooting 44 percent from the field. In six playoff games, he averaged 13 points and four rebounds while knocking down 48 percent of his shots and draining 39 percent of his threes.

Oubre looked forward to competing with a playoff-caliber team for the first time since his run with the Washington Wizards as a 22-year-old veteran. Now, he’s on the hunt for some long-term answers, and laid out his free agency desires following a tough loss to the New York Knicks.

“I just wanna be loved,” said Oubre. “I don’t know about the business side of it. I mean, I do, but I can’t tell you what I know because I represent myself right now. At the end of the day, I wanna go to somewhere where they respect and they love me.”

That’s not to say the Sixers didn’t meet Oubre’s expectations. When he first signed on, Oubre anticipated a tight-knit, family-type organization. From his perspective, that’s what he got.

“It’s been nothing but love here,” he added.

It takes two to tango in free agency. If the Sixers are willing bring back Oubre at a fair cost, the athletic veteran seems willing to run it back.

“I feel as if there’s unfinished business and a lot of things to be done and a lot of work to be done to get better and to get us back here past this point and this threshold that Sixers fans have been wanting to get past for so long and I feel as if I kinda failed because we didn’t get past that,” he said. “I gotta just reflect, talk to my family, and sit down and just work on the next steps here.”

Oubre and the Sixers have a few months to figure everything out. It’s unlikely the Sixers will look to retain everybody that played a pivotal role in free agency, but Oubre is certainly somebody they should consider bringing back.