The Future is Now for Ivica Zubac

With Doc Rivers out of the picture, now is the time for Ivica Zubac to shine fo the LA Clippers.

Transcript

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.