SAN FRANCISCO — Early in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors, James Harden threw an entry pass to Ivica Zubac in the post on the left block. The first play the LA Clippers ran in the half court to open the second half was a Zubac right hook shot on the same block over Golden State’s Trayce Jackson-Davis, where Zubac spun baseline before turning back to his strong hand to avoid a double-team.
This time, Jackson-Davis played Zubac straight up, with Draymond Green lurking to double from the baseline. Zubac countered with a left-handed hook despite Green’s contest:
The coach who helped Zubac develop that left hook was the late Dejan Milojević, who coached Zubac in Serbia with KK Mega Basket before Zubac was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round in 2016. Milojević was an assistant coach on Steve Kerr’s Warriors staff when he died in January during the team’s road trip to Utah.
“He pushed me a lot to trust my left hook shot,” Zubac said after scoring a team-high 23 points in the Clippers’ 112-104 win over the Warriors on Sunday. “Most of the teams take away my right hook. He always said, ‘Just trust in it. You’ve got a good touch. You’ve got a good left hand. We want to see that more.’”
Zubac maintained a close relationship with Milojević even as the two progressed in their respective careers. Zubac was traded to the Clippers at the 2019 trade deadline and has signed three contracts with the franchise since, the latest coming in August that will take him through 2028. He is already the longest-tenured player on the team. Milojević was hired by Golden State in 2021 and was part of the 2022 NBA championship team. Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue once tried to hire Milojević as an assistant because of his relationship with Zubac.
Zubac said he thinks about Milojević “a lot,” particularly when the Clippers visit Golden State.
“Not seeing him behind the bench, it’s tough,” Zubac said. “He was an amazing dude. Every time I would come into the city, I would go to his apartment. His wife (Natasa) would make us a dinner, we would play cards or do something. He was a really special guy. Learned a lot from him in Mega, and even throughout my years in the league, he kept giving me advice.
“I really miss him.”
Milojević would be proud of Zubac’s start to this season, especially for a Clippers team missing All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard (right knee injury) and playing through Harden after moving on from nine-time All-Star Paul George and former MVP Russell Westbrook this offseason. Zubac’s performance at Golden State was the third consecutive game in which he scored at least 20 points this season. He is averaging 22.7 points while shooting 59.2 percent from the field.
In his first eight NBA seasons, Zubac had 17 20-point games, including the playoffs. He never followed up one of those performances with another 20-point game.
Zubac always has had the hook shot in his arsenal, and he used it last year to establish himself as one of the most efficient post-up scorers in basketball, averaging 1.27 points per possession on 1.3 post-ups per game, according to Synergy. Of the 51 players who averaged more than one post-up per game last season, only Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis (1.30 points per possession on 3.2 post-ups per game) was more efficient.
Leonard was the team’s primary post-up option last season, averaging 1.7 post-ups per game and scoring 1.07 points per possession on them. The Clippers needed more sources of offense, and Zubac is getting 4.7 post-ups per game to begin this season and matching Leonard’s points-per-possession figure from last season. Only San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama (5.0) averages more post-ups.
Lue believes that Zubac has gotten better at “taking his time” with the increased touches.
“(He’s) understanding that he’s probably going to be the biggest guy on the floor most nights,” Lue said. “When we get him the ball in the paint and get to his sweet spot, he’s usually money. So, (it’s) just slowing down.”
Zubac’s increased touches aren’t just coming in the post. As Harden’s partner in the pick-and-roll, Zubac is getting more than twice as many opportunities to score. And Zubac has shown some adaption in that area, like this move to put the ball on the floor and elude the rotating Brandin Podziemski for a key fourth-quarter dunk:
“They usually send the low man to meet me as soon as I get the ball,” Zubac said. “I don’t have that much space. But they keep the low man so low that we didn’t have that cut the whole game. I figure they’re giving me all that space, and it’s usually a guard being a low man after a blitz … might as well just take the space and go up, so I’ll remember that.”
Zubac looking for the pass also is no small feat in his late career development. He never averaged more than 1.6 assists per game in his first eight seasons. To begin last season, Zubac struggled mightily as a passer. He had five turnovers without an assist in Harden’s Clippers debut last year in New York.
But Sunday night, Zubac had six assists after having three each in the first two games of the season. It’s the first time in his career that he has had at least three assists in three straight games, and he’s only had one career game with more than six assists. Zubac was so good as a passer at Golden State that he even got the 35-year-old Harden a dunk off a cut.
“He’s been patient,” Harden said. “Even when I hit him in the pocket and he faked … weak side, nobody came, and dunked the ball. He just worked constantly behind the scenes, and the work is translating in-game.”
It’s not just the post-ups, the rolls or the passes. Zubac is showing that he will drive the basketball if a team overplays an action, as he demonstrated against reigning MVP and fellow Milojević pupil Nikola Jokić in Denver on Saturday. Jokić knew the Clippers were going to a delay with Norman Powell looking for a handoff out of the corner, so the Nuggets switched to prepare to take it away, only for Zubac to surprise Jokić with a foray towards the rim that drew free throws:
Zubac rarely shoots the ball outside the paint, but he is a career 73.8 percent free-throw shooter, and he showed in the season opener against the Phoenix Suns that he isn’t foreign to the midrange jumper:
Zubac is doing all of the things a big man is supposed to do. After grabbing 18 rebounds at Golden State, he leads all players with 14 rebounds per game through the first week of play.
Clippers players and coaches want Zubac to contend for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award after being arguably the best rim-protecting starting center in the league last season; the Clippers ended Week 1 with the league’s third-best defense (allowing 103.2 points per 100 possessions) and the second-fewest points in the paint allowed per game (38.0, a Jeff Van Gundy staple). Zubac’s interior presence is helping the Clippers outscore foes by 20 points per game in the paint, a major key for a team that ranks 25th in 3s per game.
“He does so much for us on both ends of the floor,” Harden said of Zubac. “It’s early, but he does a lot, and he’s going to continue to be aggressive, continue to do more for us. I told him his goal is to be Defensive Player of the Year. I think our group has a chance to be a top-five defense.
“Offensively, he’s helped us, and it’s my job and the rest of our guys’ job to make his job easier offensively, just like he has our back defensively. We’re going to keep talking about Big Zu.”
One week does not make a season, but this is the best start to a season in Zubac’s career. And he is eager to keep it up.
“It’s only three games, but I’m trying to bring the consistency,” he said. “I’m trying to keep it up as long as I can. I’m trying to bring the same stuff every night to the teammates so they can count on me on the defensive end and the offensive end. They can count on me to do that — protect the rim, score in the post, finish around the rim.”
(Photo: Kavin Mistry / Getty Images)
