Serge Ibaka is getting closer and closer to a return for the LA Clippers.
Earlier today, Clippers' center Serge Ibaka told me he doesn't expect to be ready to play in the Clippers' season opener, but did say he's not far off from a return.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 12, 2021
LA open up against the Warriors on October 21st. https://t.co/s4R8u4Lize
As Tomer Azarly of ClutchPoints made clear, Ibaka has been improving. He’s close to a return, and is already playing 3-on-3 basketball.
We’ll need him to get in on that 5-on-5 action, of course, before he’s ready to join us against Golden State for our first regular season game. The tricky thing is that the Clippers’ schedule hasn’t always been the easiest to work with for Ibaka’s recovery.
Serge Ibaka started full contact workouts four days ago, but he hasn't had a chance to do it in practice because of the Clippers' schedule.
— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) October 12, 2021
It’s at least a very good thing that Ibaka can take contact. The next step is getting up to 100% so that he can get in some game action.
Serge Ibaka is making progress, but not enough progress to join the LA Clippers for Game 1.
Serge Ibaka likely wouldn’t start for the LA Clippers anyway in that first game against the Golden State Warriors, but he’s going to be much needed for the Clips throughout this upcoming season.
We need big man depth, because we don’t have a whole ton of it right now, with just four bigs on our roster. Four doesn’t sound like a bad number, but many are expecting us to only end up keeping one of Harry Giles or Isaiah Hartenstein.
Luckily, the Warriors aren’t the biggest team themselves, and have been playing many small ball lineups throughout games in the entirety of Steve Kerr’s career up in the bay.
No Ibaka means that Ivica Zubac will be tasked to hold down the front court with strong rebounding and rim protection. Ty Lue seems to want to start Zubac regardless, but his minutes may be extended if there’s no Ibaka at the start of the season.