The LA Clippers are expected to disappoint by many of the national pundits next year, but what happened last year is only going to make this group stronger.
The whole team will find a way to replicate the success, despite being down Kawhi Leonard for a significant portion of the season; I’m calling it.
Three guys in particular are ready to take the next step in their development. Ty Lue is going to continue to be a top tier head coach, and have everybody step up just like he did in the playoffs.
No. 3 LA Clippers player who can take a step forward next season: Ivica Zubac
Ivica Zubac was the best rebounder on the LA Clippers last year. He led the team in rebounding, and averaged 7.2 per game. While I do believe that Zubac will get even better as far as his rebounding goes, it’s not the number one reason I have him taking a step next year.
The reason I have him taking a step next year is due to the offensive looks he’s going to get.
The Clippers didn’t go out and sign any big men this offseason. In fact, they even lost Patrick Patterson, and ignored bigs in the draft.
They’re going to be a wing heavy team. That’s going to help Zubac so much. Not just because of playing time, but because of how it pertains to his offensive identity.
Check out Zubac’s shot plot from last year in the playoffs. He took a total of one shot outside the paint in all three series combined.
Now, with the Clippers being so guard and wing heavy this year, everyone’s going to hang out around the perimeter but Zubac when he’s out there.
Zubac is going to be at the basket on every possession, or the Clippers’ spacing is going to be terrible. We already knew he wouldn’t be around the perimeter, but now with this roster that we’ve constructed, Zubac won’t even be out from beneath the basket.
The guards that the Clippers have are good slashers, and many of Zubac’s best plays from the postseason came off of feeds from slashing guards.
Remember, he was 3 of 8 on tip-ins in the postseason. One may see Zubac’s heat map and think that he gets easy shots off of his rebounding, but that’s not the case. This offensive identity that the Clips have will be rubbing off of what Zubac does best.