LA Clippers 2019-2020 Season Grades: Judging the Centers

Now that the LA Clippers are firmly in the offseason, we look at how the centers performed throughout the 2019-2020 season.

Over the past couple weeks, we’ve given out season grades for the guards and the forwards for the LA Clippers. That leaves us with one position group left, and I want to check in on my favorite position on the court: the centers.

The same caveat as always applies – I don’t give out As or Fs lightly, so they are earned if you see them. Let’s get moving!

LA Clippers Centers Grades: Ivica Zubac – A-

Remember, when I was giving JaMychal Green his grade last week, that I said I’m a sucker for a player who plays well in the role he’s given? Ivica Zubac is the perfect example of this.

Doc only played Zu for 18 minutes a game. In those 18 minutes, Zu put up 8 points and 7.5 rebounds with 1 block a game. He was 1st in the league in offensive rating and offensive rebounding percentage. He was 14th in defensive rating and 11th in defensive rebounding percentage.

He played like a star in his role, and while we should be very very careful extrapolating from statistics in limited minutes, it’s hard not to get excited about a per 36 statline of 16/15 with 1.8 blocks per 36 minutes, to go along with solid defense.

He also built great rapport with basically everybody on the team. He was dangerous as the screener, no matter who the ball handler was. Everybody else played just a little bit better when Zubac was on the floor.

In the playoffs, Zu’s performance dropped a bit, but that’s to be expected. The opposing big men he went up against were Kristaps Porzingis and Nikola Jokic.

His minutes do dock a few points for him here. Certainly there’s some blame to be put on coaching, as Zu inexplicably lost minutes in the rotation and rarely saw the floor in the fourth quarter, especially in the regular season.

But conditioning plays a role there too. For Zu to take a leap forward, he’s got to be able to stay on the court for 30 minutes a game. I’m not docking much, though, especially given his positive COVID-19 test certainly having an effect on his conditioning in the bubble.

It may seem strange to make Zubac the second highest grade on the team, but I think it fits. Was Zu a better player than Paul George last season? No, he wasn’t. But I’m a big proponent of availability being the most important ability, and he was the only player to play all 72 games in the regular season.

You combine that with him knowing his role and playing it very very well, and I’m comfortable with an A- here.

LA Clippers Centers Grades: Montrezl Harrell – B-

A controversial grade, to be sure. If you go on Twitter and search “Montrezl Harrell,” you’d probably find folks saying was one of the very best players on our team, and you’d probably find folks saying Trezz doesn’t belong on an NBA roster.

Neither of those are true, of course. The fact of the matter is, Trezz is an energy guy who scores efficiently around the rim and grabs rebounds, and who shouldn’t be trusted to guard some of the better bigs in the league, and who was consistently asked to do just that in the postseason.

Montrezl is a weird antithesis to the “knows and plays within their role” kind of player that I love so much. The only thing is, in this case, it’s not even Montrezl that played outside of his role. His coach tried to force him into a greater role.

A 6’7 center can only do so much, especially one who’s a negative on defense. And being played 28 minutes a game, often for entire fourth quarters and alongside other defensive negatives, pushed Trezz far past his natural spot on the team.

His very publicized shortcomings in the playoffs have led some people to forget how important he was in the regular season. 18.5/7 on very good efficiency was crucial for us in the regular season, even as we saw the warning signs of what would happen in the playoffs.

Trezz was a B to a B+ in the regular season, and a C in the playoffs, if that. I’m averaging it out to a B- for him.

LA Clippers Centers Grades: Mfiondu Kabengele – C

I don’t have a ton to say here about Mfiondu Kabengele. Basically, see my grade for Johnathan Motley and some other youngsters. This isn’t a bad grade for a rookie; it’s a “you barely played” grade.

64 minutes in the NBA, total. What did we learn? He loves to shoot threes, getting up 20 threes in those 64 minutes (!!!).

In the G-League, Fi put up 19/9 with 2 blocks a game in 31 minutes per game, winning the team award for most blocked shots on the Agua Caliente Clippers.

But I’m not putting much stock in the G-League, as I’ve said over and over. So he gets a C, and a “let’s see it in more minutes.”

So to recap, here’s the grades I gave to everybody on the roster:

• A: Kawhi Leonard
• A-: Ivica Zubac
• B+: Patrick Beverley, Paul George
• B: JaMychal Green
• B-: Montrezl Harrell, Marcus Morris Sr., Lou Williams
• C+: Landry Shamet, Patrick Patterson, Terance Mann
• C: Mfiondu Kabengele, Johnathan Motley, Reggie Jackson
• C-:
• D+: Rodney McGruder
• D: Amir Coffey

There’s clear room for improvement, but there were also bright spots! Let us know how you feel about this list on Twitter and Facebook.