Los Angeles Lakers center Ivica Zubac hopes to have starting duties with his team. Zubac is coming off the bench in Los Angeles and he is ready to embrace a bigger challenge in Hollywood. The 19-year-old rookie has played in 28 games for the Lakers this season, collecting one start -- against the Atlanta Hawks on November 2nd in 2016. It was a solid performance by Zubac, which saw him post six points on 3 of 4 shooting from the field, grabbing four rebounds, and one steal in 19 minutes of action against the Hawks. Since then, he has yet to be a starter in an NBA game.
Zubac does not seem to be lacking confidence in himself
''I would like to play against starters,'' Ivica Zubac said, according to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times. ''Just play my game and try to keep myself out of foul trouble, play hard.'' Zubac added that his thoughts are that he ''can play'' against every player that plays his position in the NBA.
Flashback to November 2nd, Zubac was going up against well known center Dwight Howard. Tough to say that it was easy to compete against Howard, but it gave the rookie a valuable experience. Zubac also revealed that he is ''ready to play against everybody,'' and that he has been ''through worse'' against Atlanta, so he thinks he is ''prepared for everything.''
Zubac is expected to have his wish fulfilled
Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton reportedly revealed that he is planning to promote Ivica Zubac to the starting lineup ''at some point.'' The Lakers have a record of 20 wins and 45 losses on the season and they won't be making this year's playoffs.
Starting Zubac won't harm the team in terms of playoff standing or anything of the sort, and it would also give Zubac more valuable playing experience as he moves forward in his young career.
The Lakers have 17 regular season games left to be played on their schedule. It remains to be seen if Zubac will get inserted into the team's starting five as the 2016/2017 campaign progresses. So far on the season, Zubac has averaged 6.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
