Clippers rim protection no longer has Ivica Zubac as its safety net, and that changes almost everything about how Los Angeles can defend.
For years, Clippers guards could attack the ball more aggressively because they knew Zubac waited behind them. He rarely needed a spectacular block to end a possession. His size closed driving lanes, his positioning discouraged layups, and then he finished the job by securing the rebound.
That certainty disappeared when Los Angeles sent Zubac to Indiana at the February trade deadline and received Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin and two first-round picks. Tyronn Lue now enters camp with three very different options at center. Brook Lopez provides experience and length. Jackson brings younger legs and vertical athleticism. Yanic Konan Niederhäuser owns perhaps the most intriguing physical ceiling, though his recovery from right foot surgery clouds his immediate role.
The real competition goes deeper than who starts. Lopez may enter camp with the job, but Jackson is the player Los Angeles should hope can take it.
Zubac left more than minutes behind
Zubac’s value became clearest when possessions started breaking down. A guard lost his man. A screen created separation. A rotation came half a second late.
There was Zubac.
He had grown into one of the league’s steadiest paint defenders and one of the Clippers’ most dependable rebounders. During his final full season in Los Angeles, he averaged 12.6 rebounds, including 8.9 on the defensive glass.
That work on the boards mattered just as much as the rim contests. A center can challenge a layup perfectly and still lose the possession if someone else grabs the miss. Zubac helped Los Angeles avoid that second problem.
During the 2024-25 season, the Clippers led the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage at 73.4 percent. Early last season, that figure had fallen to 68.8 percent, and Los Angeles rebounded noticeably better whenever Zubac was on the floor.
The overall defense slipped too. Los Angeles finished 2025-26 at 42-40 with a 115.2 defensive rating, 18th in the NBA. One year earlier, the Clippers had allowed only 109.4 points per 100 possessions.
Not all of that belongs to the center position. Roster turnover, injuries and perimeter breakdowns played their part. But the defense no longer carries the same margin for error around the basket.
That is the standard Lopez, Jackson and Niederhäuser inherit.
Brook Lopez gives Lue a floor
Nobody needs training camp to discover what Brook Lopez does well.
At 38, he has seen every coverage, every screening angle and nearly every trick an NBA guard can use against a big man. His timing remains excellent, and his 7-foot-1 frame still changes shots. The Clippers reinforced their trust in him when they exercised his $9.2 million option for 2026-27.
There were nights late last season when Lopez showed exactly why. Against Dallas in April, he grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked four shots in 25 minutes. The box score only tells part of it. Lopez stayed close enough to the basket to make drivers reconsider their angles, then used his body to finish possessions instead of chasing every rejection into the seats.
The formula for Lue is straightforward. Los Angeles has to keep Lopez near the paint as often as possible. If Kris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. fight through screens and steer ballhandlers toward him, Lopez can shrink the lane without covering acres of space.
The trouble starts when opponents drag him away from that comfort zone.
The Western Conference will test his legs
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can turn a deep drop into target practice with his change of pace. De’Aaron Fox can hit a crease before the big man finishes taking his first retreat step. Anthony Edwards can turn a late rotation into a collision at the rim.
Those matchups expose the fine line Lue must walk. Lopez still has elite length, but his legs cannot solve every mistake in front of him anymore.
The Clippers can survive with Lopez protecting the basket in controlled minutes and favorable coverages. Asking a 38-year-old center to carry the entire defensive identity across an 82-game season would be another matter.
That is where Jackson enters the picture.
Isaiah Jackson is the camp battle that matters most
Jackson does not need to become Zubac. He needs to become dependable.
At 24, he brings a completely different defensive profile. He gets off the floor quickly, closes space fast and can recover to plays that appear dead. Across 158 career games before last season, he averaged 1.3 blocks in limited minutes, evidence of the shot-blocking instincts that made him a first-round pick.
Those instincts can help the Clippers, but they can also pull him out of position. Jackson has to resist chasing every block. Leaving the floor too early creates dump-off passes and offensive rebounds. Wandering too far from the basket can turn a good contest into an easy putback.
That is where Zubac set the standard, and it is where Jackson’s camp will really be judged.
Coaches will not spend film sessions staring at his block totals. They will look for the quieter details: whether he tags the roller, calls out the weak-side rotation, stays vertical and finds a body after the shot goes up.
If he handles those responsibilities, his athleticism opens up parts of Lue’s defense that Lopez cannot reach as easily.
Jackson can play higher against screens. He can recover after showing toward a ballhandler. His closing speed gives Los Angeles more freedom against quicker teams that want to pull a traditional center into space.
He also fits the direction of the reshaped roster. The Clippers acquired Jackson directly in the Zubac trade, and while his 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds last season offer some baseline, those numbers matter less than what Los Angeles now needs him to become.
Lopez gives the Clippers a known answer. Jackson could give them a more flexible one.
Winning the job requires boring basketball
The most encouraging Jackson possession in camp might never reach social media.
He absorbs contact from the screener, takes one controlled step toward the ball and retreats when the guard changes direction. Then he meets the roller, forces a difficult attempt and immediately turns to find the nearest body.
No block. No celebration. Just a missed shot and a Clippers rebound.
That sequence would say more about his readiness than a spectacular rejection into the third row.
Los Angeles needs fewer emergencies around the rim. Jackson already has enough athleticism to clean up mistakes. The bigger breakthrough comes if he learns how to prevent those mistakes from becoming emergencies in the first place.
If that starts happening consistently, Lue’s center decision gets much harder.
Niederhäuser remains the wild card
Yanic Konan Niederhäuser complicates the picture because his best moments look like exactly what modern defenses want: long, mobile and explosive.
In a March victory over Golden State, Niederhäuser produced 11 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and two steals in 21 minutes. It was the kind of performance that makes developmental timelines feel negotiable.
Then his rookie season stopped.
Niederhäuser suffered a Lisfranc injury in his right foot days later and required surgery, ending his season. That makes his health the first question before any discussion about his place in the rotation.
When healthy, the appeal is easy to see. Niederhäuser can challenge shots above the rim without camping directly underneath it, and his length gives him recovery potential when a possession starts to break down. He also showed enough on the glass to suggest he could eventually provide more than highlight blocks.
Still, a young center returning from significant foot surgery cannot become the foundation of a camp plan.
For now, the Clippers should view the position in layers. Lopez represents the present. Jackson represents the immediate opportunity. Niederhäuser represents the longer-term swing.
If he returns quickly and looks comfortable, Lue suddenly has another athletic option. If his recovery requires patience, Los Angeles cannot rush him simply because the depth chart needs help.
The perimeter defenders share the burden
No center fixes the Clippers’ interior defense alone.
The first defender still has to influence where the ball goes. Dunn gives Lue someone who can harass primary creators. Jones can cover ground from the wing. Bigger forwards can stunt toward the lane and recover toward shooters.
Those details become especially important with Lopez. If the point-of-attack defender dies on a screen, Lopez has to handle both the ballhandler and the rolling big. Against elite Western Conference guards, that usually ends badly.
Jackson changes that geometry because he can move. His presence would allow Los Angeles to show higher, recover faster and play with more aggression farther from the basket.
That does not automatically make him the superior defender. Lopez still reads the floor better and understands positioning at a level Jackson has not reached.
What Lue really wants is the middle ground: Lopez’s discipline in Jackson’s younger body.
Camp will show how close Jackson is to providing it.
The Clippers should hope Jackson makes this uncomfortable
The easiest outcome would have Lopez starting on opening night.
He knows the league, understands Lue’s expectations and already has the organization’s trust. On paper, he remains the safe choice.
Safe does not necessarily mean best.
For this roster to develop a higher defensive ceiling, Jackson needs to put real pressure on that hierarchy. If Lopez cruises through camp as the obvious starter, Los Angeles probably enters the season with a workable center rotation. If Jackson makes the decision uncomfortable, something more valuable has happened.
The Clippers would have found younger legs behind their perimeter defenders and a center capable of playing different pick-and-roll coverages. Lopez could shift into a more carefully managed role, where his size, shooting and experience become weapons instead of necessities.
That approach would also help preserve him over an 82-game schedule. There is no shame in using a 38-year-old veteran selectively. The mistake would be asking him to carry responsibilities better suited to someone 14 years younger.
The answer does not require one center to replace Zubac by himself. It requires the rotation to make sense as a whole.
Camp must produce a defensive identity
Training camp will provide plenty of easy measurements: who starts the scrimmages, who blocks the most shots, who plays with the first unit and who closes preseason games.
The more useful evidence will come between those moments.
Jackson has to stack disciplined possessions. Lopez has to remain effective without getting stranded 25 feet from the basket. Niederhäuser has to regain his explosiveness after surgery. The guards have to keep enough pressure on the ball to prevent every drive from becoming a crisis.
Those answers will shape far more than the center depth chart.
The Clippers finished last season in the middle of the league defensively after once building an identity around controlling the paint and finishing possessions. Losing Zubac removed the player who made much of that work feel routine.
Now protecting the basket has to become a collective job.
Lopez can stabilize it. Niederhäuser may eventually raise its ceiling. But Jackson carries the most interesting possibility into camp because his development could change how aggressively the entire defense operates.
If his positioning catches up with his athleticism, Los Angeles will have found something it badly needs: a center young enough to run with its new roster and disciplined enough to protect everyone behind the first mistake.
Brook Lopez may begin camp with the job.
The Clippers should hope Isaiah Jackson makes him fight to keep it.
READ ALSO: How Rick Carlisle Can Rebuild The Pacers’ Broken Transition Defense During Training Camp
FAQs
Who will start at center for the Clippers in 2026-27?
Brook Lopez appears to have the inside track entering camp. Isaiah Jackson can make that decision much harder if his defensive discipline improves.
Who did the Clippers get for Ivica Zubac?
Los Angeles acquired Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin and draft compensation from Indiana in the Zubac trade.
What does Isaiah Jackson bring to the Clippers?
Jackson brings athleticism, shot blocking and quicker defensive recovery. His next challenge is pairing those tools with consistent positioning and rebounding.
What happened to Yanic Konan Niederhäuser?
Niederhäuser suffered a Lisfranc injury in his right foot late in his rookie season. He required surgery and missed the remainder of 2025-26.
Why is rim protection such a concern for the Clippers?
Los Angeles lost Zubac and finished 2025-26 18th in defensive rating. Its defensive rebounding also declined sharply from the previous season.
