Ivica Zubac shares his expectations for Wembanyama, talks European basketball problem / News - Basketnews.com

In an interview with BasketNews, Los Angeles Clippers big man Ivica Zubac touched on several topics, including the lack of playing time for European young talents, the greatness of Nikola Jokic, and the bitter taste feeling left by how his NBA season ended.

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For many years, the Adidas EuroCamp in Treviso, Italy, has been an established tradition in the pre-draft process.

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All the NBA GMs, scouts, and executives used to fly to Italy to watch some of the most interesting European and International prospects just a few weeks before the draft.

This was the case until 2018. Later, after Adidas quit, the NBA briefly took over the event and chose to move it to Monte Carlo, where the 2019 edition was to be held.

But shortly before the event, the NBA announced that EuroCamp would not be held due to organizational problems.

Since then, the EuroCamp disappeared from the radar only to return to being organized this year in Treviso again under the management of Adidas.

The return of the EuroCamp has brought loads of NBA personnel and some special guests to the Italian city.

Ivica Zubac, the starting center of the Los Angeles Clippers, would rather play in the NBA Finals than be here in Treviso.

The Croatian big man and the Clippers had the goal of being a real contender in the Western Conference, but because of injuries to its stars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, Tyronne Lue's team dropped out of the playoffs as early as the first round, falling 1-4 to the Phoenix Suns of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.

The early elimination left a bitter taste in the Croatian big man's mouth but also gave him a chance to enjoy some more rest after an extremely long season.

"Of course, the end of the season was disappointing, we wanted to be contenders, but unfortunately, with all the injuries and the stuff that happened, we fell short of our goals," Zubac told BasketNews.

"So definitely, I don't feel good about it. This is now the third season in a row that we have had to deal with key injuries in crucial moments of the season. But, unfortunately, you can't control these kind of things. So now I only hope that next season we can stay healthy, stick together, and fight for a championship," Zubac added.

Ivica Zubac

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Despite the disappointment for the early exit from the playoff, that hasn't stopped Zubac from watching the postseason.

The Clippers big man enjoys the NBA Finals and shared his thoughts about the amazing season that Nikola Jokic is having with the Denver Nuggets.

"The Finals have been really competitive," Zubac told BasketNews. "I expected Denver to be there, I didn't expect Miami to reach the Finals. I think very few people expected them to go so far in the playoffs. But you know, they deserved it. The way they played so far as the 8th seed it's been incredible, really. And for this reason, I really hope that this series will go to Game 7 because the level of basketball has been extremely good."

Zubac also praised the Nuggets star Jokic, comparing his numbers to a video game.

"Nikola has been playing just amazing basketball, really," Zubac added about the 2-time NBA MVP. "He's averaging a triple-double in the playoffs, I think something like that never happened before."

Zubac is correct, no player in NBA history has ever averaged a triple-double for the entire duration of the NBA playoffs. Jokic currently averages 30.5 points, 13.4 rebounds, and 10.1 assists per game.

"In Game 3, he had 31 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. Those are crazy numbers, video game numbers. He's continuing the amazing regular season that he had on a bigger stage in the playoffs," Zubac continued.

In recent weeks, several top European coaches, including Giannis Sfairopoulos and Sergio Scariolo, have raised concerns about the lack of young talent at the highest European level of basketball.

Most EuroLeague teams tend to focus on the same players most of the time, and young people tend to have little space.

Now, with the NCAA's ability to offer economical deals of a certain level, more and more European prospects decide to leave Europe to go to the United States and pursue their basketball career there.

The lack of minutes when you are a talented young person is something Zubac has experienced firsthand. The Croatian player shared his recipe for solving this kind of problem.

"They should play the young kids more, simple as that," the LA Clippers big man explained to BasketNews.

"I mean, I know it's hard for the coaches because one year, you have a job, and the following one, you could be gone," Zubac argued. "In Europe, it's not like in the US, you really need good results in order to keep your job. Many teams here in the NBA can be okay with one or two bad seasons, but if you have one in Europe, you lose your job most of the time."

"I understand that for European coaches, it's hard to play the young players because they don't have experience and make mistakes. But at the same time, if you don't want to lose these young talents, you have to play them more. Otherwise, they will continue to leave, going to the NCAA or elsewhere," Zubac added.

"It's something that I went through personally," Zubac continued. "I didn't get playing time in Cibona, that's why I left for Mega, in order to play more and gain more experience. I've seen this type of situation so many times, I've seen it also with some friends of mine who were really talented, but they never got minutes when they got that transition to the senior level.

They never got to chance to make mistakes. I know it's hard to keep a balance between these two aspects, having an ambitious team and giving minutes to the young players, but I do believe that a lot of young talents in Europe should get more playing time."

Giving a better platform for young players to develop is also one of the EuroCamp's goals, and that's why Zubac believes this event is important for many European talents.

"It's an opportunity for them because this camp gives them a bigger spotlight than the one they're used to," the Croatian national team member told BasketNews.

"EuroCamp gives a good platform to these guys and provides them with NBA coaching staff. You know, here you have current NBA head coaches, assistant coaches, and even former players teaching the best tools possible to these kids and helping them with their game, I think it's a really good experience for a young player," Zubac said.

Speaking of young talents, next season, we will see Victor Wembanyama, the French sensation in the NBA, and the hype surrounding the Metropolitans' player has never been higher.

Even Zubac has a certain level of expectation for Wembanyama and cannot wait to see him playing in the league.

"Oh yeah, I mean, you see all these videos and highlights, it's incredible. A guy with that kind of size and mobility, it's really rare to witness something like that," Zubac told BasketNews.

"We probably never saw a player like him so far. He's probably gonna be the No. 1 pick and will be coached by one of the best coaches ever, Gregg Popovich. He's gonna play a lot of minutes for a great organization like the Spurs. I definitely have high expectations for him, but I believe he's gonna be in a perfect position to develop and show that he can be one of the best players," Zubac added.

For a European player like Zubac playing in the NBA also means that the balance with International duties it's often difficult to maintain.

Because of the current schedule, NBA players are completely cut off from the in-season FIBA windows, and that's a big issue, especially for national teams with multiple players in the league.

NBA teams, of course, want to protect their investment in the players, and in many cases, they'd love to avoid having their players go back home to play for their national team.

However, they have to deal with the strong will of the International players who are often deeply connected to their countries and want to play for their national teams every single time they can do it.

"Of course, NBA teams are not super happy about it. They're scared of injuries, there's a lot of stuff they can't control while you're playing for your national team. In part, I understand that. They're paying you to play in the league, not in the summer with your national team," Zubac said.

"But as an International player, as someone coming from a small country, you always want to make your country proud, you wanna do everything in your power to succeed. It's difficult because FIBA put these windows in the middle of the NBA season, so we cannot go, and for small countries like Croatia, not having NBA players is real damage.

We're not like Spain, France, or even Serbia. They have a lot of players at the highest European level. It's hard watching your teammates during the season from the USA, and you can't do anything to help them. NBA teams always try to tell you to take it slow, to be careful, but when the summer comes, you wanna go out and represent your country in the best way possible," Zubac concluded.

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