{"id":47800,"date":"2022-06-29T11:08:09","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=47800"},"modified":"2022-06-29T11:08:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:08:09","slug":"ivica-zubac-earns-well-deserved-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/06\/29\/ivica-zubac-earns-well-deserved-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivica Zubac Earns Well-Deserved Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

After another solid season of growth and protecting the rim, Ivica Zubac<\/strong><\/a> earns a well-deserved extension. Adrian Wojnarowski<\/a> of ESPN reported that the LA Clippers<\/a> and their center agreed to a new extension this afternoon. The club reportedly declined his $7.5M option for next season to replace him with a $33M, three-year extension. Zubac was originally on a three-year extension worth $21M before agreeing to his new deal. He remains one of the best value contracts in the league.<\/p>\n

Ivica Zubac Earns Well-Deserved Extension<\/h2>\n

In an injury and COVID-riddled season, Zubac was an ironman for the Clippers. The eight-year big played in 76 games, starting in all of them. In those games, he averaged 10.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and one block per game. All on 62.6% from the field and 72.7% from the charity stripe. His points and rebounds per game were both career-highs for the seven-foot native of Croatia.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Frank, Clippers’ President of Basketball Operations, credited Zubac for the Clippers’ top-10 defense this past season. A feat that is impressive given the talent they missed on that end. This season, Zubac showed offensive flashes in January and scored a career-high 32 points and added 10 rebounds against league MVP Nikola Jokic<\/strong><\/a> and the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n

When the Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard<\/strong><\/a> and Paul George<\/strong><\/a>, there was much noise about the team’s need for a rim protector. However, Zubac did a serviceable job then and continues to produce. At roughly $11M per year, Zubac is on another team-friendly contract given his production. Additionally, the team maintains a solid starting center without overpaying. This is especially important given Ty Lue<\/strong><\/a> likes to finish small.<\/p>\n

The team now pivots to free agents Nicolas Batum<\/strong><\/a>, Amir Coffey<\/strong><\/a>, and Isaiah Hartenstein<\/strong><\/a>. All three proved to be integral pieces in the team’s success last season. Free agency begins this Thursday, June 30th at 3 PM PST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After another solid season of growth and protecting the rim, Ivica Zubac earns a well-deserved extension. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the LA Clippers and their center agreed to a new extension this afternoon. The club reportedly declined his $7.5M option for next season to replace him with a $33M, three-year extension. Zubac was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4020,"featured_media":47805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,27,62],"tags":[652,189],"class_list":["post-47800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-clippers","category-nba","tag-ivica-zubac","tag-los-angeles-clippers"],"modified_by":"Dylan Guest, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}