The Future is Now for LA Clippers Center Ivica Zubac
There is no greater source of untapped potential on the LA Clippers roster than seven-foot big man Ivica Zubac. Through the first four years of his NBA career, the 23-year-old has dramatically improved his game and become a strong finisher and one of the league's better rim protectors.
Despite that, Zubac was severely underutilized this past year, averaging merely 18.4 minutes per game during the regular season and 24.6 in the postseason — something that can be attributed to Doc Rivers.
Per The Athletic's Jovan Buha, Rivers' insistence on playing Montrezl Harrell over Zubac in the playoffs was a "point of contention" between Rivers and the organization. LA's former coach was reportedly much higher on Harrell than Zubac and thought he was the better option against the Denver Nuggets — though just about all the evidence suggested the opposite.
It seems to have played some role in his departure, though it isn't clear if it was the main one. What we do know is that the organization thinks highly of Zubac, and that can only mean great things as far as his future with the team is concerned.
This was supposed to be the year that Zubac broke out. And when given the opportunity, he — and the Clippers — excelled. LA went 21-7 (.750) when Zubac played at least 20 minutes and 28-16 (.636) when he came in under that mark.
Unfortunately, as you can see from that tally, Zu wasn't on the floor as often as he should've been. That hurt the Clippers throughout the regular season, but nowhere near as much as it did in the playoffs.
With Rivers out of the picture, LA has the opportunity to hire a replacement that will get the most out of this roster. That should involve Zu seeing his minutes increase and finally getting a chance to break free of the short leash that's been on him since he was traded to the Clippers.
Zubac never would have reached his full potential with Rivers coaching the team. The future would have looked a lot like this past season did. In its search for a new head coach, expect the organization to hire a candidate that can elevate Zu's ceiling rather than view him as a liability.
