Clippers free up some more money with trade

The carousel of Clippers continued Wednesday, with the team making its second trade in two days to shed salary in hopes of wooing an elite free agent this summer.

About a half hour before a 110-92 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Staples Center, the Clippers announced they had acquired forward Drew Gooden from Washington as part of a three-team deal in which they sent forward Al Thornton to the Wizards and backup point guard Sebastian Telfair to Cleveland.

The Cavaliers also received forward Antawn Jamison from Washington and the Wizards received center Zydrunas Ilgauskas from Cleveland.

The move gives the Clippers an additional $5.5 million to pursue a free agent from a class that will include Cleveland’s LeBron James, Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Toronto’s Chris Bosh.

“The major consideration,” General Manager Mike Dunleavy said of the trade, “was to put ourselves in position to hit a home run.”

Still, Dunleavy refused to characterize the series of trades as strictly a salary dump, saying “we received back three players that we really like and those players are going to have a great opportunity to come in here and play and show us the remainder of the season what they can do and what level they can play at.”

Steve Blake, whom the Clippers acquired Tuesday from Portland, started at point guard Wednesday and scored three points in 32 minutes during the Clippers’ sixth consecutive loss. Clippers guard Baron Davis sat out because of a sore lower back.

“I didn’t shoot the ball the way I wanted to, a couple of careless turnovers, but it was fun playing with everyone,” said Blake, who made only one of six shots but had nine assists and only three turnovers.

Center Al Horford scored 31 points on 12-for-15 shooting for Atlanta, which scored a whopping 70 points in the paint and capitalized on 24 turnovers by the Clippers. Center Chris Kaman had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers.

Clippers interim Coach Kim Hughes said his team would practice Thursday, a rarity after back-to-back games.

The team hopes to start indoctrinating its new players into its schemes, including Gooden, who has been traded twice in five days after being dealt from Washington to Dallas on Saturday.

The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 8.9 points and 6.9 rebounds in 46 games this season with the Mavericks. Gooden, 28, is not under contract for next season.

Dunleavy said it was “tough” to part ways with Thornton, who had spent all three of his professional seasons with the Clippers. But Thornton’s playing time had decreased the last two months after he lost his starting spot to Rasual Butler, and the Clippers acquired what Dunleavy described as a comparable player Tuesday when they received Travis Outlaw in the Portland trade for Marcus Camby.

Perhaps more important, Thornton was under contract for $2.8 million next season.

“The end result was that we were able to get the cap space that we deem necessary for the coming off-season,” Dunleavy said.

Financial considerations also led to the Clippers’ willingness to deal Telfair, who held a player option for $2.7 million next season.

The trade was not made official until shortly before the game, leaving the Clippers only a few minutes to say goodbye to Thornton.

“The guys you’ve been playing with all season, now they’re gone and now you’ve got new players coming in,” guard Eric Gordon said.

“It’s just going to be different. It’s a challenge for the new guys and even the guys who have already been here.”

It’s been a busy few days for Dunleavy, who was asked whether he anticipated making any more moves in advance of Thursday’s trading deadline.

“I think this is it, but hey, we’re open for business until 12 p.m.” Thursday, the trading deadline, he said. “You never know what could happen.”

Etc.

Blake said before the game that he was “pretty shocked” to be traded from playoff-contending Portland to the sub-.500 Clippers.

“I wasn’t sure that something like this was going to happen, but at the same time as the day went on I was pretty excited to come to a team that wanted me here and play with the talented guys that are here,” Blake said.

--

ben.bolch@latimes.com