No. 2 goal for Ivica Zubac in the 2021-2022 season for the LA Clippers: Use his size on defense
Ivica Zubac has so much potential on defense for the LA Clippers. He’s 7 feet tall, which Ibaka is not.
Yet, Ibaka continues to be the better shot-blocker. Even in one of Ibaka’s lesser years in terms of blocking shots, he still blocked 1.1 per game this year. Zubac has never blocked a shot per game or better.
I challenge Zubac to be better when it comes to shot-blocking. He’s going to be in the paint on defense all the time. Also, Ty Lue showed in the Mavericks series that he knows how to adjust to find the best possible situations for Zubac defensively.
Zubac is going to be in positions to succeed next year, and it’ll be up to him to use that 7 foot frame to reject shots that come his way. We know he can do it. This is the same player who had three blocks in one game against the Jazz in the playoffs, and two blocks in one game against the Phoenix Suns and Deandre Ayton in the playoffs.
If he can just get to, let’s say, 1.4 blocks per game (a half block more per game than the last three years), he should be in great shape.