NBA PREVIEW : Lots of Questions, Only a Few Answers : Clippers: It’s hard to tell just how they will do, and nobody is making any predictions.

Still the Clippers after all these years, they’ve apparently grown tired of great expectations, even the young players who have known only one last-place, multi-coach season.

So this time will be different, in approach if nothing else. What happens after that happens. The time for bravado and ticket-selling proclamations passed months ago, probably about the time the 21-61 season of 1988-89 was finishing.

“I hate to say things like, ‘We’re going to do this,’ and ‘We’re confident,’ like people do before every season,” said forward Charles Smith, an NBA all-rookie selection in 1988-89. “I’m tired of saying it as much as people are tired of hearing it.

“It becomes real repetitious saying the same thing over and over. I’d just like to remain quiet and just play and let people watch us and decide how things are for themselves.”

Smith, the most impressive Clipper during training camp, is not alone in his sentiment. The closest any player will stray near a bold statement is to say that they plan to be in contention for a playoff spot. Coach Don Casey, who saw the high hopes of last season turn into another in a long line of disasters, refuses even to speculate on that goal.

“I make no predictions,” he said. “All we can promise is effort and excitement.”

So, for the team that always seems to have more questions than answers, here are a few more at the dawning of 1989-90.

Question: Who are the starters?

Answer: Gary Grant and Reggie Williams at guard, Smith and Ken Norman at forward, and Joe Wolf at center. When--if?--Benoit Benjamin shows, he’ll replace Wolf, providing some much needed depth on the front line.

Q: What are the additions to a team that recorded a third consecutive last-place finish and four road wins?

A: Two second-round draft picks (Jeff Martin and Jay Edwards) and three free agents (Carlton McKinney, Michael Young and Torgeir Bryn). Edwards will open on the injured list, where he may remain for a while, and another free agent, Andre Turner, has been brought in.

Q: Who is expected?

A: Danny Manning. The target for his return from knee surgery remains the end of December or early January, which, if true, would work out nicely. The Clippers open a marathon eight-game trip on Jan. 2, and having Manning in tow would be a big lift.

“Up to that point we have to play strong without him to be in position when he does come back to make the playoffs, or at least make a run,” said Grant, who last season led all rookies in assists and steals. “As soon as he gets back, we’ll win a lot more.”

Q: Who else might show?

A: Ponce de Leon. That is the Fountain of Youth hidden somewhere inside the Sports Arena, right?

Supposedly maturing to where they one day will be a group of veterans, the Clippers are instead getting collectively younger. The opening-day roster last season had an average of 2.25 years NBA experience, while this team enters at 1.42, and that’s with the late addition of Turner in place of Edwards and giving Young credit for two full years when he actually played only a pair of games each season.

Q: Who are the veterans?

A: Benjamin has four years’ experience, but he’s not in much of a position now to provide leadership. Ken Bannister has three years of NBA experience, but only nine games in the last three seasons. Take away Turner, and nobody else is past two years.

Q: So what of Benjamin?

A: What appeared to be a done deal of a contract after his return from Italy has turned into anything but. It’s turned into a process so slow that one of the negotiators said, “It’s like stirring cement with an eyelash.”

The holdup appears to be over incentives, with the Clippers pushing for more contingency money and Team Benjamin looking for more guaranteed dollars. The proceedings have dragged on long enough for the players’ union to get involved in the background, making itself available to Benjamin’s attorneys.

The NBA Players Assn. views Benjamin in his official status, as a restricted free agent. But since he has not signed an offer sheet from another team, the fifth-year center remains Clipper property, which means if he plays anywhere, he plays here.

Q: Is someone who has caused his team so much frustration really worth all this?

A: Yes, to the Clippers. Beyond the fact that he can be one of the dominating centers in the league, Benjamin is all they have. If Manning were healthy or Danny Ferry a Clipper, it might be full-speed ahead with a three-forward alignment.

But since he isn’t and he’s not . . .

Q: There is no first-round draft choice. The No. 1 pick from last season is still mending. Quintin Dailey is gone, and his average of 16.1 points a game has not been replaced. Why, then, is there any optimism, not to mention a realistic chance to step up from the cellar?

A: There are several reasons: Smith’s exhibition season and his showing while healthy last season. Norman coming off a season when he emerged as the team’s most consistent player. Grant’s performance down the stretch, when he stopped trying fancy highlight-film passes and settled down and played well without so much glitter. Casey being pleased with the exhibition play of Williams. Backup guard Tom Garrick, a fine defensive player as a rookie, becoming more aggressive on offense.

Q: Having won over the players long ago, who else does Casey plan to get excited about the Clippers?

A: Put it this way--the Clippers have 2 1/2 days in Washington before playing the Bullets Feb. 8, and an invitation will be going to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“I’ll invite him,” Casey said. “I’ll make him a Clipper fan.”

Are you listening, President Bush?

Heck, they’re old friends. OK, one-time acquaintances. Casey, then a Clipper assistant, and former Clipper Coach Don Chaney met the then-vice president three years ago during a similar East Coast trip, having coffee and talking with Bush for 15 minutes.

The connection went back to Casey’s first coaching job, at Bishop Eustace Prep in New Jersey. A student manager there became part of Bush’s Secret Service team, and through him Casey met an assistant to the vice president.

And they have something in common. Casey’s first day in charge of the Clippers last season as interim coach was Jan. 20, the same day Bush was inaugurated. So, of course, the president will have time for the Clippers.

Q: What Clipper is getting the most attention back home?

A: Bryn, a 6-foot-9 forward from Oslo, by way of MiraCosta College in Oceanside and Southwest Texas State.

“Everyone interested in sports in Norway has been rooting for him,” said Aud Berggren, the Los Angeles correspondent for VG, the country’s largest daily. “His name has been all over the papers.

“He said it has been his dream to play pro basketball since he was 15. But you don’t go around in Norway saying how you are going to be great some day. You will get a bang on the head.”

Q: Are there any guarantees that this season will be different from the past?

A: Yes. For the first time in six years, the Clippers open at home, tonight against Houston.

Beyond that, no guarantees.