Ivica Zubac hasn’t taken the court since Feb. 2 due to a left ankle sprain, and while he was out he was traded from the LA Clippers to the Indiana Pacers. Thursday night, he will make his debut for his new team.
🗣️ ZUUUUUUUU
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) March 12, 2026
Ivica Zubac is making his Pacers debut tonight 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qnTwGGwv7H
This season with the Clippers, Zubac averaged 14.4 points and 11 rebounds per game, shooting 61.3% from the floor. He will also provide a defensive presence in the paint that Indiana has lacked all season. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Zubac would eventually play this season, this may have been a little quicker than his expected return but he is back.
While Zubac is back, the Pacers don’t want him to start helping them win games quite yet. As part of the trade, Indiana’s first-round pick this June goes to the Clippers, however, the pick is top-four protected. At 15-50, Indiana has the league’s worst record, but with lottery odds, that makes just a 52% chance Indy gets to keep the pick. Indiana, Brooklyn, Sacramento and Washington are in a tight “race” to the bottom — they are all within two 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.
The Pacers traded a first-round pick for Zubac looking ahead to next season. That’s when Zubac will be setting picks for a healthy Tyrese Haliburton (out for the season with a torn Achilles), as well as Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard — and maybe a young star they draft this June.
