With Doc Rivers out of the picture, now is the time for Ivica Zubac to shine fo the LA Clippers.
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00:00 There's no greater source of untapped potential in the Lakers roster than 7-foot big man Igbiziz
00:05 Zubac. In the first four years of his NBA career, the 23-year-old big man has dramatically improved
00:10 his game and become a strong finisher and one of the league's better end protectors.
00:13 Despite that, Zubac was severely underutilized this past year, averaging nearly 18.4 minutes
00:19 per game during the early season and 24.6 in the postseason. That's something to
00:23 attribute to former head coach Doc Rivers. Per the Athletics, you have on Buha Rivers'
00:27 insistence on playing Montrezl Harrell over Zubac in the playoffs was "a point of contention
00:32 between Rivers and the organization." LA's former coach was reportedly much higher on
00:36 Harrell than Zubac and thought he was the better option against the Denver Nuggets.
00:40 That's just about all the evidence we had suggesting the opposite of that.
00:43 It seems to have played some role in his departure, though it isn't clear if it was the main
00:48 one. What we do know is that the organization thinks highly of Zubac and that can only mean
00:52 great things for his future with the team. This was supposed to be the year that Zubac
00:57 broke out in LA. And when given the chance, he and the Clippers
01:00 excelled. LA went 21-7 this past season when Zubac played at least 20 minutes and 28-16
01:07 when he came in under that mark. To clarify, that's 28 games when he played over 20
01:12 and 44 under 20. Unfortunately, as you can see from that tally, Zubac wasn't on the
01:17 floor as often as he should have been this year. And while that hurt the Clippers in
01:20 the regular season, it didn't hurt them anywhere near as much as it did in the postseason.
01:24 With Rivers out of the picture now, LA has the opportunity to hire a replacement that
01:28 will get the most out of this roster. That should involve Zu seeing his minutes increase
01:33 next season and finally get a chance to break free of the short leash he's been on since
01:38 he was traded to the Clippers in 2018. Zubac never would have reached his full potential
01:43 with Clippers with Rivers coaching the team. The future would look a lot like this past
01:47 season did. And in its search for a new head coach, expect the organization to hire a candidate
01:52 that can elevate Zoo's ceiling
01:53 rather than view them as a liability.