LA Clippers: Five Questions Facing the 2020-2021 Clippers

LA Clippers Question 4: What kind of minutes does Zubac play?

With the LA Clippers, Ty Lue will have a big man whose main job is set screens, make smart decisions in the pick and roll, play defense and grab rebounds.

Sound familiar?

Ivica Zubac‘s role on the team right now is fairly similar to what we saw in Tristan Thompson. And while Zubac is already more of a threat, especially on offense, than Tristan Thompson ever was, he also hasn’t found himself playing the minutes that Thompson did.

Another wrinkle is that Lue played seemed to not want to play TT nearly as much toward the end, leaning away from playing his defensive big a lot of minutes. In Lou’s first season, TT played 28 minutes per game. That went up to 30 in his second season, then cratered to 20 in Lue’s final season.

Of course, Thompson did suffer a calf injury in that season, leading to him missing a chunk of time. But in the 33 games between the calf injury and his subsequent ankle injury, TT eclipsed 30 minutes only 2 times.

Was that part of Lue’s gameplan? Or did it speak to a more effective lineup without Thompson? Or was it as simple as Lue recognizing that TT needed to be eased back in, even after being given a clean bill of health?

If it’s one of the latter two, that’s encouraging for fans of the LA Clippers. If it was injury concerns, then that’s understandable, and if it was a matter of finding the best lineup, we feel great about that from our coach! And the numbers show that Zubac should be getting big minutes anyway, if his condition can stand for it.

If Lue’s gameplan turns out to be shying away from his defensive bigs? We could be seeing more of the same for Zubac next season. I wouldn’t be overly concerned about this, though. Lue is known as a matchups coach, and it’s hard to imagine him ignoring Zubac when he’s the best option.