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There little doubt that the Clippers didn’t quite get everything out of their investment in center Serge Ibaka last year that they’d hoped. He played in 41 games and averaged 23.3 minutes, the fewest since his rookie year, and scored 11.1 points, his lowest production in a decade.
The team was fortunate that backup Ivica Zubac stepped in and played well as Ibaka dealt with back issues all spring. Ibaka returned for the final two games of the regular season and the first two games of the NBA playoffs, but bowed out and had surgery after that.
He is not quite ready to get back on the floor, but that point is nearing, he said this week.
“I am feeling good, I have been working all summer,” Ibaka said. “Close, you know, to 100%. So, so far so good.”
Ibaka was not specific on a return date.
“Day-by-day,” he said. “I don’t really have a timeline, just day-by-day. I will start doing contact first. And then see how it goes.”
Ibaka Dealt With Back Pain for All of 2020-21
The status of Ibaka’s back will be an important one as the Clippers go through training camp, in part because the team will have to decide on a third center—Harry Giles and Isaiah Hartenstein are among those competing for a role. The team signed DeMarcus Cousins last year to fill that role, but he will not be back with the team this season.
Entering the summer, there was little doubt that Ibaka would opt in to the final year of his contract, signed last summer, because of the back injury.
Ibaka suffered a pinched nerve in the back at the outset of the season and had battled the injury all year. At the time of his injury, Ibaka explained that he had been managing the pinched nerve with pain medication.
“When your nerves come from your disc and go down in your legs, it’s more nerves,” Ibaka said. “Yeah, it’s been a very rough year for me since the beginning of the season. I wanted to play through the pain, but at some point, I could not continue to play like that.”
Lawrence Frank on Ibaka: ‘He Had a Maniacal Work Ethic’
Though it remains unclear when Ibaka will be back on the court, team president Lawrence Frank last week praised Ibaka’s approach to rehab, indicating that he could be ready soon, though he, too, withheld any specifics.
“He has a maniacal work ethic, he’s really attacked his rehab,” Frank said. “He’s made terrific progress … He’ll start out in training camp, doing non-contact, and we’ll just assess his progress and where he’s going once we introduce contact at a certain point, it’ll be in a small group, probably one on one focus and then build up to that, and see how he responds to it. So we’ll just take it in phases.”
The good news for the Clippers is that Zubac, who sat out Games 5 & 6 of the conference finals against the Suns because of a sprained ligament in his knee, is expected to be fully healthy.
No matter what happens with Ibaka, Zubac is expecting to blossom on the floor this year.
“It’s year six for me now,” he said. “It’s time to take the next step and bring it every night. Talking on defense, helping guys on the floor, bring the energy and being aggressive, finishing every night. I think that’s the next step for me, for us as a team, just being consistent every night.”
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