On the glass, the LA Clippers are unimaginably fragile. They have one player doing all of the dirty work down low, Ivica Zubac, with little bits of help from everyone around, generating a recipe for disaster. Their rebounding essentially falls off a cliff as soon as Zubac heads to the bench.
In fact, Zubac is averaging a team-high 11.6 rebounds per game. In total, over the span of 21 contests, he has been credited with 243 rebounds, which is slightly over 28% of the team's 863.
The center rotation has done nothing positive to help Zubac this season. He is still scoring all the points, playing all the defense, and being pressured with all the tasks, averaging 32.4 minutes.
The least everyone could do, especially those with an advantage in height, is box out with Zubac, and assist him, yet even that the Clippers cannot do.
The Clippers responded with a flawed solution to their center problems
For five games in a row, Brook Lopez has not checked into a game. His 1.9 rebounds per game were an extremely small fraction, but if he were serviceable, having another seven-footer in the paint would definitely boost the LA Clippers, who are 26th of 30 in rebounds per game.
Moreover, Lue recently mentioned that he will be inserted based on matchups. The championship head coach noticed how aware their opponents were, as they would play small-ball to speed up and directly attack Lopez's biggest weakness.
More on Brook Lopez... I asked Tyronn Lue about Lopez being out of the rotation for the first time and Kobe Brown being the backup center/John Collins getting more room inside
— Law Murray 🎄 (@LawMurrayTheNU) November 26, 2025
It sounds like the conversation between Lue and Lopez was a positive one. Lopez is now part-time option https://t.co/UES370Lc9l pic.twitter.com/zpn9A6VhhV
Thus, the Clippers paid Lopez in the summer only to have him turn out to be used a percentage of the time as the backup center. This is not wise spending, yet another consequence of the front office's atrocious offseason.
The two players splitting time as the backup-five for LA are John Collins and Kobe Brown. The tallest one of the two is Collins, at six-foot-nine. Therefore, though Lue is in the right for trying to match their opponents' pace with Collins and Brown, the few inches Lopez has on them leaves a critical gap that is irreplaceable by anyone else the Clippers have.
That said, Ivica Zubac has been by himself on the inside for the majority of the year, and will be constantly relied on, even though it is unfair, to time every rebound perfectly. This is not sustainable, yet it is all the Clippers have, as Lopez's minutes have a negative impact on the team.