It was a homecoming night for Ivica Zubac on Wednesday. He had been a fan favorite with the Clippers since 2019, but was traded at the deadline to Indiana, and there was plenty of love for him among the Intuit Dome faithful.
Zubac did not play in this game, he hasn’t taken the court since Feb. 2 due to a left ankle sprain. Before the game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Zuback will eventually play this season, but there is no timeline, via Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.
The Pacers will be slow to bring Zubac back because he’s good and they can’t afford to start winning games — if they do, it’s the Clippers who benefit. As part of the Zubac trade, Indiana’s first-round pick this year goes to the Clippers, but it’s top-four protected. At 15-47, Indiana has the second-worst record in the league, but with the lottery odds that makes it just a coin-flip Indy gets to keep the pick: 52.2% it is top four and goes to the Pacers, 47.8% it is five or six and goes to the Clippers. Indiana, Brooklyn and Washington are in a tight “race” to the bottom — they are all within 1.5 games of each other in the standings — and if the Pacers fall to the fourth-worst record, then they end up on the wrong side of those coin flip odds.
Next season, when a healthy Zubac is running pick-and-roll with a healthy Tyrese Haliburton (out for the season with a torn Achilles), a lot of fans who may not have understood just how good Zubac is are going to find out. He’s going to thrive in that role. This season, it sounds like he will play some, but the Pacers have a fine line to walk.