Where does Ivica Zubac rank on your center list?

BleedGreen1989 · Post #1 » by **BleedGreen1989** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:01 pm

28 years old. Fresh off a breakout season of sorts. Maybe the best rebounder in the league? Great defender.

Where does Zubac rank on your current center list?

Bornstellar · Post #2 » by **Bornstellar** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:02 pm

No

Edit: OP has rephrased the initial question so my initial response no longer applies

Post #3 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:07 pm

He certainly looked great. All-D, excellent rebounder, excellent off-ball guy on offense. Very good in the flow.

Not the best rebounder in the league, though, that's a touch of hyperbole. But only a touch. It was basically him, Walker Kessler and Domantas Sabonis. 40+ GP, 30+ MPG, 13+ TRB36, and that's Kessler, Sabonis and Zubac in descending order. So he's right up there (and just ahead of KAT). Kessler only played 58 games, but he was the leader in ORB/g, while Sabonis was the leader in DRB/g.

Anyway, that's probably immaterial, because the combination of defense, rebounding, ability to play mostly without the ball until finishing a possession, and then supporting efficient offense in the high teens per game was very good. And he looked pretty good in the playoffs, too.

Bornstellar wrote:No

C'mon, man. Have a useful reply, not this empty nonsense.

BleedGreen1989 · Post #4 » by **BleedGreen1989** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:08 pm

Bornstellar wrote:No

I edited the thread. Not how I meant to propose the question.

My bad.

jowglenn · Post #5 » by **jowglenn** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:31 pm

I think he's definitely in the argument for 2nd best center in the league. But it reminds me of certain previous eras, where the C position was weak and you'd get some really random guys elevated to All-NBA, 2nd/3rd best center in the league, just because it was a weak position. Andrew Bynum got a 2nd-team All-NBA one year. Al Jefferson and DeAndre Drummond got 3rd-team all-NBA. DeAndre Jordan was 1st-team!!!

Being the 2nd-best center in the league can still mean you're only the 23rd best player or whatever.

Jokic obviously #1; Embiid DQ'd until he can demonstrate health.

So in the running for 2nd are KAT (or is he a PF next to Robinson?) Zubac, Sabonis... there are a lot of guys who are PFs who probably play center a good deal - Wemby, AD, JJJ?

Is Wemby a full time center? If so he's definitely #2

Post #6 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:38 pm

jowglenn wrote:Andrew Bynum got a 2nd-team All-NBA one year.

All-NBA Teams prior to relatively recently had more positional locks, so that's a bit different. Bynum was an All-Star the year he was All-NBA 2nd team, and he was a 19/12 player shooting 55.8% from the field, so it's not like he was some scrub.

azcatz11 · Post #7 » by **azcatz11** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:41 pm

Centers clearly ahead of Zubac:

Wemby
Jokic
Embiid
Towns
Bam
Gobert
Myles Turner
Sengun

He's at the top of the next tier with Allen, Poeltl

Post #8 » by **Mavrelous** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:51 pm

It's really roster dependant, but he can go as high as 5, behind the following

Wemby
Jokic
Towns
Bam

Bornstellar · Post #9 » by **Bornstellar** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:52 pm

tsherkin wrote:
Bornstellar wrote:No

C'mon, man. Have a useful reply, not this empty nonsense.

C'mon man, that was not a serious question, OP even rephrased the question because he knows Zubac is not the 2nd best C in the league and it's a silly thing to ask.

Post #10 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:53 pm

Mavrelous wrote:It's really roster dependant, but he can go as high as 5, behind the following

Wemby
Jokic
Towns
Bam

Is he really behind Bam, though? Not meaningfully better on D, worse on the glass, not a better scoring threat. What makes him rank higher to you?

Post #11 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:53 pm

Bornstellar wrote:
tsherkin wrote:
Bornstellar wrote:No

C'mon, man. Have a useful reply, not this empty nonsense.

C'mon man, that was not a serious question, OP even rephrased the question because he knows Zubac is not the 2nd best C in the league and it's a silly thing to ask.

The better thing to do then would be not reply at all, or at least articulate the thought of WHY the question doesn't make sense as phrased.

BelgradeNugget · Post #12 » by **BelgradeNugget** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:55 pm

tear 1 Jokic
tear 2 Wemby, Towns, Bam, Gobert, Myles Turner, Sengun, Zubac, Sabonis

I left Embiid, AD and Porzingis of off the list because of injury concerns

Post #13 » by **Mavrelous** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:55 pm

tsherkin wrote:
Mavrelous wrote:It's really roster dependant, but he can go as high as 5, behind the following

Wemby
Jokic
Towns
Bam

Is he really behind Bam, though? Not meaningfully better on D, worse on the glass, not a better scoring threat. What makes him rank higher to you?

I don't project him to have same level.of defensive impact outside of Lue's system, he is slow and struggles to switch.

Bornstellar · Post #14 » by **Bornstellar** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:55 pm

BleedGreen1989 wrote:
Bornstellar wrote:No

I edited the thread. Not how I meant to propose the question.

My bad.

No worries bud. A lot of trolling on the GB lately so when you ask if Zubac is the 2nd best C in the association behind Jokic, I thought for sure you had to be trolling. But I see now you have rephrased your question

Zubac is definitely underrated but I'm not sure I'd put him on my top 5 of centers. Off the top of my head: Jokic, Victor, Towns, Sabonis, and J. Allen are all guys I'd take ahead of him. Then if you consider guys that play F/C like AD, Chet, Adebayo, etc, that pushes him further down the list. I think he is the perfect C for a team that has star players on it already though

Post #15 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:56 pm

Mavrelous wrote:I don't project him to have same level.of defensive impact outside of Lue's system, he is slow and struggles to switch.

Interesting. Thanks for the answer.

mkot · Post #16 » by **mkot** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 7:57 pm

azcatz11 wrote:Centers clearly ahead of Zubac:

Wemby
Jokic
Embiid
Towns
Bam
Gobert
Myles Turner
Sengun

He's at the top of the next tier with Allen, Poeltl

You forgot Ayton! How dare you! I heard he is top 5!

Chuck Everett · Post #17 » by **Chuck Everett** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:00 pm

If Zubac's last year wasn't a fluke (and I don't believe it was), he's a better player than Bam, Gobert, Turner and Sengun (and makes less money on top of it). I can't say he's better than Towns yet. Embiid is a question mark due to health.

Post #18 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:03 pm

Chuck Everett wrote:If Zubac's last year wasn't a fluke

Worth mentioning, he's about a 16/13 player PER36 on his whole career, and it was his 6th season shooting 60%+ from the field, and a strong year as far as protecting the ball. The big difference this year, apart from minutes, was him cutting down his foul rate.

Chuck Everett · Post #19 » by **Chuck Everett** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:08 pm

tsherkin wrote:
Chuck Everett wrote:If Zubac's last year wasn't a fluke

Worth mentioning, he's about a 16/13 player PER36 on his whole career, and it was his 6th season shooting 60%+ from the field, and a strong year as far as protecting the ball. The big difference this year, apart from minutes, was him cutting down his foul rate.

True... but last year he raised his game to such a significant degree consistency wise that he had an argument for all-NBA on top of his all-defensive season. It's not a stretch to say that last year was the best season of his career. What makes me believe/hope it wasn't a fluke—was the fact that he didn't do it in a contract year. Bam on the other hand, received an egregious extension and proceeded to have a terrible season (at least by his standards) to reward Miami.

I think Zu figured some stuff out last year. His touch around the basket has become elite.

Post #20 » by **tsherkin** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:10 pm

Chuck Everett wrote:True... but last year he raised his game to such a significant degree consistency wise that he had an argument for all-NBA on top of his all-defensive season. It's not a stretch to say that last year was the best season of his career. What makes me believe/hope it wasn't a fluke—was the fact that he didn't do it in a contract year. Bam on the other hand, received an egregious extension than had a horrific season (at least by his standards).

I think Zu figured some stuff out last year. His touch around the basket has become elite.

Yeah, I'm sure he did figure out a bunch of stuff. That said, he actually BACK-SLID in his FG% around the rim and overall efficiency, likely because he was playing more and actually taking the shots and stuff, which is different than just per-minute projections.

The defense was probably the most important part, just ahead of him actually maintaining his production over minutes. It was a great year, for sure, and I hope he does it again.