Ivica Zubac (C, LAC): Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

Clippers center Ivica Zubac is a worthy consideration as a fantasy basketball waiver wire pickup heading into Week 17 of the NBA season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12-Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 49% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Check this out: Ivica Zubac starts from Dec. 22 to Mar. 14? One. Zubac starts from Mar. 15 on? All of them 18 games. The minutes have gone from below-20 per game to a monster 29 MPG in the last month and those 18 matches. Fantasy GMs are catching up to this man's exploits, the rostership is about to hit that 50% in all Yahoo leagues, and odds are you will miss out on getting shares of Zubac if you don't stop reading this post and go smash that "Add" button ASAP. Just warning you.

I have personally liked Zubac for a long time now--I'm talking years--and even on a secondary role this season leading up to the break he was excellent on a per-minute basis, putting up an above-average 1.0 FP/min mark with the league playing at an 0.9 level. That average, obviously, has gone down (0.93) in the past month as the minutes have gone up 10 ticks but Zubac is still playing above-average, which is fantastic.

Zubac is averaging an 11-8-1 line with 1 BPG since he was thrust into the starting position and given he knows nothing about three-point shooting his percentages are bonkers from the floor at 67 FG% in that span attempting 7 FGA per game. That is great for a month-long span, but if we go by season-long stats Zubac is actually one of just three players hitting 65%+ of his shots while attempting 5+ per game, along with Rudy Gobert and Robert Williams. The points are always going to be on the 10+ realm, the rebounds won't drop from 5 a game, and there's always upside for a dub-dub coming Zubac's way (he has five already since he's the starter). Absolute must-have even in the slightest of deep-league formats.

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