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Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak talks about team’s second draft pick: Ivica Zubac

Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak in April.
(Greg Beacham / Associated Press)
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As he sat down behind the microphones around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak laid out one simple rule.

“Don’t ask me to say the name,” Kupchak said, a slight grin on his face. “Especially not at this late hour.”

The name: Ivica Zubac, a 7-foot-1 Croatian center whom the Lakers selected with the 32nd pick in Thursday night’s NBA Draft. Kupchak joked that he’d call Zubac “the 32 pick,” then expressed interest in the 19-year-old’s untapped potential.

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Zubac was the Lakers’ second selection after the team took Brandon Ingram at second overall. Kupchak said he’d like to get Zubac to the States for summer league.

Kupchak didn’t commit to Zubac playing for the Lakers next season. To Kupchak’s knowledge, the player has a few years left on his Serbian league contract but does have an NBA opt-out clause.

Zubac — a longtime Lakers fan who was awake at 4 a.m. to watch a stream of Kobe Bryant’s last game on Croatian television — is ready to start right away.

“I believe he would like to play next year, and we wouldn’t be opposed to that,” Kupchak said, and later detailed what he sees in the European big man.

“Started playing late, still a body that’s still developing. You may say he’s not as fluid, in other words ... clearly still growing into his body and becoming more comfortable on certain parts of the court.”

Zubac, who expected to go around the 20th pick in the first round, listed his strengths as low-post scoring, defending the paint and passing. When the 20th spot passed, his agent told him the Lakers were a possibility at 32, and he said he started to pray he’d go to them.

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Growing up, Zubac heard his friends and role models talk about Bryant. That led him to follow the Lakers and buy his first NBA jersey: Kobe Bryant, No. 24. Then he added two more Lakers jerseys to his collection: Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

But he’s not entirely sure where the Bynum jersey is.

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“No, that’s somewhere ... it’s somewhere in my room under all my clothes,” he said, laughing, on a conference call with reporters Thursday night. “Don’t say that, don’t say that!”

It’s unclear when Zubac’s NBA career will start or if it will ever take off. Kupchak said he had a few player comparisons in mind but didn’t want to share them and place unfair expectations on himself. Zubac said he liked comparisons to Marc Gasol and that he plans to model Bryant’s “killer instinct” and “will to win the game.”

As for Zubac’s new general manager knowing how to pronounce his name, Kupchak needs some time to work on it. What matters most is that Kupchak submitted the pick correctly. He didn’t take any chances, having the NBA spell Zubac’s name back to him while cross-checking it against the draft board in his office.

Then he asked for a bit of help.

“To be honest with you, as you know we speak into the phone,” Kupchak said. “And I had international scout Antonio Maceiras, once I had the NBA on the line I had him lean into the phone and announce the name.”

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jesse.dougherty@latimes.com

Twitter: @dougherty_jesse

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