Today, we’re looking at the season preview for one of the Clippers’ big new additions: veteran center Serge Ibaka, who joined the team as a free agent after winning the 2019 NBA Championship with Kawhi Leonard in Toronto.
Basic Information
Height: 7’0″
Weight: 235 lbs
Position: Center
Age: 31
Years in NBA: 11
Key Stats: In 55 appearances for the Raptors last year, played 27 minutes per game and averaged 15.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 2.0 steals while shooting 51.2% from the field and 38.5% from deep.
In the playoffs, played 22.8 minutes per game and averaged 14.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.3 blocks while shooting 57.3% from the field and 51.1% from deep.
Contract Status: Signed a two-year deal for the full mid-level exception, with a player option for the second year. His deal pays $9,258,000 this season.
Expectations
Based on his career, and recent contributions on contending teams in Toronto, the Clippers should have high expectations for Serge–he should be one of the team’s top 8 players who consistently produce during the season, and be a mainstay in Ty Lue’s playoff rotation as well. The team clearly foresaw that level of impact, considering the sacrifices they made to sign him. Not only was Ibaka brought in to replace reigning sixth man of the year Montrezl Harrell, but utilizing the full MLE means incurring a hard cap, which cost the Clippers valued backup JaMychal Green and negatively impacted their flexibility to round out the roster.
Ibaka’s counting stats aren’t particularly significant, as long as he maintains his quality. He’ll back up incumbent starter Ivica Zubac, though I expect the two to essentially split the center minutes 50/50. Depending on situation and matchup, each could see favor–Zubac is the superior interior defender while Ibaka brings offensive floor-spacing. The two will also inevitably play together at times this season, though the pairing will only work defensively against certain opposing lineups. As long as Ibaka can take his roughly ~50% of the center minutes and play like he did last season for Toronto, he’ll help the Clippers stay a strong regular season team. Then, in the playoffs, he’s a champion and trusted veteran with 144 career postseason games who will help the team significantly as Zubac’s backup.
Strengths
Contrary to what Ibaka became famous for early in his career in Oklahoma City, present-day Ibaka doesn’t make his biggest contributions with shot blocking and rim-rattling dunks. Instead, he’s become a well-rounded scorer who has good volume and efficiency from all over the floor. Last year, he shot 38.5% from three on 5.8 attempts per 100 possessions (for reference, JaMychal Green shot 38.7% on 8.6) and in total, scored 27.1 points per 100 possessions on 25.1 shot attempts with 2.5 assists and 3.5 turnovers (Montrezl Harrell scored 31.7 on 21.9 attempts with 2.9 assists and 2.9 turnovers).
The Clippers, in essence, managed to replace almost all of Harrell’s high-volume offensive production in the backup center slot (albeit with major stylistic differences, as Trez dives to the rim seeking contact and dunks while Ibaka pops and spaces the floor) and add a stretch big with legitimate center size to rebound and defend on the second unit. While Serge isn’t going to lead the league in blocks like he did earlier in his career, he’s a high-IQ defensive big who has good positioning and rebounds the ball well–he grabbed 23.5% of available defensive rebounds and 16.1% of total available rebounds last year (compared to Harrell, 16.3%/13.2%; Zubac, 26.4%/21.3%; and Green, 24.1%/15.4%).
Weaknesses
While Serge is efficient from all over the floor offensively, he isn’t a particularly creative player. On a Clippers team that sometimes struggles with ball movement and creating good shots for each other, Ibaka won’t bring much passing or playmaking–and as someone whose production is heavily dependent upon others’ playmaking, he could even suffer in the transition away from playing with Kyle Lowry. Last year, 80% of Ibaka’s 273 made 2-pointers were assisted, along with all 70 of his made threes. Fortunately, between Green, Marcus Morris, and Patrick Patterson, the Clippers are comfortable playing with pick-and-pop bigs and should be able to get Ibaka some looks, but he might not be as prolific on a team that isn’t as good at finding him.
Defensively, while Serge is a big step up from the likes of Harrell, he still has some limitations. His rebounding is good, but not as great as Zubac’s, and as an interior defender and rim protector his high IQ leaves him trustworthy but his declining mobility leaves him probably closer to solid than actually being strong on that end. Again, Zubac has the Clippers covered with an elite interior defender, while Ibaka might be useful as a situational alternative who is slightly more mobile to defend ball screens while adding more offensive firepower. But the word slightly is important there–the Raptors found in recent seasons that Ibaka and Marc Gasol could essentially only play together when opposing teams were using two similarly big players. They only saw 89 minutes of floor time together last season, though the Raptors excelled with a +24.7 net rating in those minutes. Zubac has more mobility than Gasol has left, but isn’t the passer or shooter that Marc is offensively, so it’s hard to say if there will really be more utility to the two-big look for LAC.
Summary
Ibaka isn’t a perfect player, and his athleticism has declined drastically over the years. But he is a legitimate replacement as a backup scoring center who will be a valuable floor-spacing alternative to Zubac in the postseason–all while being a stable non-liability on defense and the glass. I don’t think Serge is going to emerge as any type of third star for the Clippers, but he’s a safer bet to a high-impact member of their top-8 rotation, and should be a big part of their 2021 redemption arc.
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