LA Clippers: How Ivica Zubac fit in
By Paul Headley
Next eeason and beyond
Ivica Zubac is a good role player who fills a serious hole in the LA Clippers roster. Should teams opt for size, Zubac is the only player on the team who can effectively match up at the 5.
The NBA has been moving progressively smaller for the better part of a decade, but more teams are projected to play bigger next year than in seasons past.
Some writers and fans wondered out loud whether Zubac will be overpaid on his next deal, a claim that’s fairly baseless. Zubac is just 22 years old. His new deal will pay him through his prime, with the last year a team option if he regresses.
If he can approach league average as a spot-up shooter, he’ll be valuable on both ends of the floor.
Zubac’s salary next season (a touch under $6.5 million) ranks as just the 188th-most lucrative in the league. Failure to outperform such a low-bar seems unlikely, especially since his main role will be to fill in holes around megastars.
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Players like Leonard and George tend to make role players better and that’s exactly what I expect to happen.