Manning Gives Clippers Flexibility : Pro basketball: He might play every position except center. Speed will remain team’s emphasis.

Although he insists all five starting assignments are undecided, Mike Schuler is sure of one thing: The Clippers will have a lot of possibilities with any lineup.

Danny Manning’s versatility allows the Clipper coach the luxury of being diverse. Schuler says Manning, 6 feet 11, could play any position except center when the regular season opens Nov. 2.

“He’s one of the main ingredients,” Schuler said. “I don’t know if he’s the key, but Danny’s versatility does afford us the ability to experiment.

“For his size, he’s an excellent passer. The thing that’s good about him, he thinks that first.”

One formation will have four forwards and a guard, with Manning bringing the ball upcourt as point forward. Another time, Schuler can go with three forwards and two guards, or even smaller still with three guards and two forwards.

“I would say you’ll be seeing all of the above,” Schuler said. “When you do, it doesn’t mean changing anything you do. We’ll still run the same offensive sets. We’ll still use the post-up series--you figure Danny Manning playing in the backcourt will be guarded by a guard. And we’ll still run. That’s still the emphasis.”

Actually, only two starting jobs are undecided. Winston Garland, Tom Garrick, Bo Kimble and Jeff Martin are competing to open at shooting guard while incumbent Ron Harper mends, and Manning and Ken Norman are the candidates at small forward. Manning has yet to to have a full day of practice because his left ankle, sprained a couple of weeks ago while he was working out in Cincinnati, is still bothering him.

Joe Wolf, who for the first time in three years is not part of the Clippers’ forward logjam, doesn’t miss it. He misses the players and the atmosphere of being around a team seemingly ready to crash the playoff party . . . but not the organization.

Any sadness about leaving Los Angeles after signing an offer sheet with Denver disappeared last week. Three years of service got him no consideration, he figured, the Clippers waiting until the day training camp opened to tell him whether he should report to the Nuggets--a move Wolf saw as obvious several days earlier.

“That may be part of the business, but you come to expect that after a while,” he said.

With the Clippers?

“Yeah. But I’m happy with the situation I’m in now.”

Wolf is competing with Blair Rasmussen and Jawann Oldham to become the Nuggets’ starting center. Wolf was out of position there as a Clipper, but Coach Paul Westhead’s wide-open style of play in Denver makes the move from forward possible.

Kimble had to laugh at the irony. The Sports Arena is his home court again, just as it was before he left USC for Loyola Marymount.

There’s more. The Clippers will hold some practices this season at Gersten Pavilion, and the season’s first game is against Sacramento. Kimble and Lionel Simmons, the Kings’ first-round draft choice, have been friends since playing for rival teams in high school.

Kimble had originally said he will shoot his first NBA free throw left-handed as a tribute to the late Hank Gathers, who switched to shooting free throws left-handed at Loyola in an attempt to improve his accuracy from the line. But all the attention has turned the shot into more of a publicity matter than the true spirit intended.

“I’m going to do whatever I feel,” Kimble said. “If I shoot it left-handed, it’ll be left-handed. But I don’t want to put too much attention on that. Whatever happens, happens. Either way, people are going to know my relationship with Hank.”