When the Indiana Pacers made the trade for Ivica Zubac, they did so with the explicit purpose of trying to beat the market to an incredibly good and capable big man.
They were willing to give up an asset that they saw as purely hypothetical in their first-round pick in the middle of a gap year. To them, if it landed in the top four, it was worth keeping. If it didn't, it was a little more than an opportunity to add more confusion to a rotation that needed clarity.
That, however, is underselling just how good Ivica Zubac is, and the Pacers' preseason performances have shown that Indiana is prioritizing something they have truly never really had in this era of Pacers basketball: post scoring.
Pascal Siakam is excellent down low in his own right, but he prefers occupying the mid-post and elbow territories where he can turn a catch-and-rip through into easy points at the rim. Zubac is different. He wants to be as low as possible, using his massive frame to seal defenders under the basket and to get easy chances at layups and dunks.
This requires a considerable amount of setup and is something the Pacers have not had to work on. Tyrese Haliburton, who will likely be the primary creator of those opportunities, has not played with a low-post big since he shared time with Richaun Holmes on the Sacramento Kings.
Figuring out the fit
Across a few exhibition games, the Pacers have set the blueprint for how to play in this style. It is clear that what they have planned is for Zubac to be a massive part of their offense with those dump-off opportunities.
According to high school coaches, the two easiest shots in basketball – and, as such, the two most prioritized shots in basketball – are free throws and layups. Despite the fact that they have the word "free" in them, free throws are, in fact, not free for most players.
Zubac, like most centers, is only at around 70% on the shot from the line. That would make a layup by far the best shot on a per-touch basis. Getting Zubac as many of these gimmes as possible would be a fast way to keep him involved in the offense and to draw help defenders inside and make the Pacers' three-point attempts even easier.
Those shots will come in the flow of the game, but Zubac's post specialty will require more intentionality. No matter the six to eight seconds it will take to get him in position and work with his back to the basket, these shots are shockingly efficient at generating buckets.
Post-scoring big men are seemingly a dying breed. Most would blame the analytics that made it seem as if a back-to-the-basket game was superfluous. However, those analytics have simply found that any player who can only do one thing is likely not going to be very useful in the entirety of a game.
Zubac is not in that boat. His scoring on the block is the whipped cream on the sundae, not the totality of his being.
And who doesn't love whipped cream?
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