Familiar Refrain for Clippers : Pro basketball: Camp opens with optimism despite the fact that Kimble is holding out and Harper probably won’t be ready until January.

New coach, new holdout, new enthusiasm: an old Clipper story.

Any fast-forward to the future began Friday when training camp opened at Cal Poly Pomona, this time with Mike Schuler, without Bo Kimble and with more promise than almost any franchise with a bleak past and a Sterling reputation has a right to have.

But the Clippers are once again putting their best future forward as collateral for respect.

That’s a tough sell when the No. 1 draft choice is dissatisfied with a $1.4-million annual contract, while remaining one of the most popular athletes in town, and the team’s scoring sensation of last season is several months away from returning, but so it goes with the Clippers.

Having Charles Smith, Danny Manning and an in-shape Benoit Benjamin present provides a certain amount of balance.

Schuler returns to head coaching after 1 1/2 years as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors. The Clippers’ third coach in 21 months won’t have the entire team until about January, when Ron Harper is expected back from knee surgery, but getting started is good enough for now.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day, Oct. 5, since May 25,” Schuler said, referring to the day he was hired. “It’s been a long, slow, drawn-out deal. Now that it’s here, I’m real excited.

“I have done everything humanly possible to get ready for the season. I’ve met with each player and gotten input from them on how they view the team. We as a staff have gone away for about a week and put together the system of what we want to do.”

That formula is not unlike previous plans: Up-tempo offense and pressing defense. The personnel remains familiar, too.

The unknown, this week at least, is at the same position. Harper is here . . . but watching from the sideline. Kimble also is in L.A. . . . but working out on his own while waiting for his contract to be settled. That leaves Winston Garland, Tom Garrick and Jeff Martin to settle the matter of starting shooting guard for now.

Harper’s timetable is well-defined: a probable return in January. Kimble? It depends on how much he and agent Leonard Armato are willing to budge from their contract demands.

Armato is reportedly asking for a $1-million loan, a BMW, a base salary in the range of $7.5 million for five years and a staggering clause: If Kimble makes the All-Star team two seasons in a row, he automatically becomes an unrestricted free agent. Laughable only begins to cover the Clippers’ reaction to that.

Previous demands, it has been learned, have included a $1-million signing bonus and $100,000 for making appearances on behalf of the team, a stipulation that no other player has in his contract. The Clippers’ offer on the table is five years at $7 million, the same deal that the Sacramento Kings gave Lionel Simmons, picked one spot ahead of Kimble--although the Clippers want a portion of it deferred.

One player’s future was decided Friday, when the Clippers announced that they would not match the offer sheet Joe Wolf signed with Denver, allowing their former first-round draft choice to go to the Nuggets without compensation. The move came as no surprise.

Clipper Notes Ron Harper attended the opening practice but did not work out with the team. He did, however, do some light running while wearing a brace to support his injured right knee. ... Danny Manning is expected to miss the first three days of practice because of a sprained ankle.

Gary Grant, back after missing the final three months last season because of a broken ankle, is represented by boxing promoter Don King, as is teammate Benoit Benjamin. ... Keith Lee, the 11th pick in the 1985 draft, decided against coming to camp, after playing with the Clippers in the summer league. He has previously had knee problems.

The Clippers will leave Pomona Wednesday, making it a shorter stay than usual. After a four-game trip to open the exhibition schedule, they will finish two-a-day practices at the Sports Arena and the Westwood Recreation Center. The regular season begins Nov. 2.