NBA DRAFT : A New Whirl Order Just Might Emerge : Pro basketball: Don’t be surprised if the Lakers and Clippers join a flurry of trade activity before today’s selecting begins.

The strangest of seasons for pro basketball in Los Angeles gives way to the strangest of drafts, with the Lakers in the unusual position of making a critical pick and the Clippers looking only to accent.

Both teams have been looking at trades and probably will continue to look right up to today’s 11 a.m. PDT deadline before the draft that begins in Portland, Ore., at 4:30. In fact, the Lakers and Clippers are only two of the teams that could shuffle the drafting order with deals.

The Lakers, following through on their plan to pursue a top player, offered Vlade Divac, James Worthy and Elden Campbell to the Houston Rockets for Hakeem Olajuwon and Sleepy Floyd. But a salary-cap restriction put the Lakers back to square one, also known as their original spot with the 15th pick.

The Clippers also stuck to their postseason blueprints and pursued Pooh Richardson of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The sides never got real close, by all accounts, but the names got interesting. The Timberwolves are believed to have put a deal on the table that would have brought them Danny Manning for Richardson and today’s No. 3 choice, but the Clippers passed.

Elsewhere, the Denver Nuggets, picking fifth, have talked with the Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks about moving down to seventh or eighth, respectively. The Nuggets figure LaPhonso Ellis of Notre Dame, the player they want, will still be available then and they will get something more from the other team involved. The big men--Ellis, Adam Keefe of Stanford and Tom Gugliotta of North Carolina State--appear bunched around the sixth through eighth picks, headed in some order to Denver, the Washington Bullets at No. 6, or Sacramento.

The San Antonio Spurs and Bucks have been so serious for more than a week about a Dale Ellis trade that he visited San Antonio last Friday to work out for his prospective new employers, desperate for outside shooting. Milwaukee would get pick No. 18, if that deal is completed, although another possibility has the Spurs picking for the Bucks and making the trade after being able to maneuver the salary cap July 1.

With No. 15, the Lakers have one of the most-watched picks. Several general managers predicted late last week that Jerry West would gamble with Missouri’s Anthony Peeler, who fits their expressed need for a guard and an exciting player. But Peeler recently was put on five years’ probation after pleading guilty to a felony weapons charge and two related misdemeanors.

Additional assault charges filed during the weekend were dropped Tuesday. Peeler said that by the end of the day the Lakers were still so interested that he will meet again with West at the Lakers’ request today. Such interviews on the day of the draft are rare.

The Lakers also like versatile Doug Christie of Pepperdine, but are concerned about his two knee operations.

The Clippers go next at No. 16 and hold Christie in high regard, but they were scared off by the supposedly bad knees of Sean Elliott in 1989.

The Clippers might pick Lee Mayberry of Arkansas, hoping he will develop at point guard. Or center Elmore Spencer of Nevada Las Vegas. Maybe, dare we say, even another forward, such as UCLA’s Don MacLean, because of his tenacity and mobility at 6-10, or Tracy Murray, because of his outsie shooting. Whomever they choose, it will be the latest selection of the Elgin Baylor era.

The Clippers also will pick 25th, the final installment to the heist that was the Danny Ferry deal. They already have Ron Harper and a draft choice that became Loy Vaught from Cleveland for Ferry and Reggie Williams.

The possibilities remain the same. Center, with Spencer, Sean Rooks, Oliver Miller or P.J. Brown. Or guard, with Hubert Davis of North Carolina, or a three-point specialist such as Randy Woods or Jon Barry, a very good open-court player.

It figures to be a big day for local standouts. USC’s Harold Miner could be drafted as the No. 8 pick by Milwaukee or fall back to the fringe of the lottery, but he figures to go before either Murray and MacLean. If so, it will be the first time a Trojan was drafted before a Bruin since 1982, when Trojan Dwight Anderson went in the second round to Washington and Mark Eaton lasted until the fourth round before being taken by the Utah Jazz.

NBA Notes

The prospects for some of the other local players: USC’s Duane Cooper, who helped his case with a nice showing at the Chicago pre-draft camp, will be a second-rounder. and could go as high as the 30s. Lucius Davis of from UC Santa Barbara appears to be on the bubble for the second round or becoming a free agent. Terrell Lowery of Loyola Marymount is regarded as a mid-late second-rounder. James Moses of Iowa, by way of Alemany High in Mission Hills and Serra of Gardena, and David Whitmore of Playa del Rey St. Bernard and Tulane are doubtfuls. UCLA’s Gerald Madkins is a possibility for the second round. . . . The Lakers also pick 36th. The Clippers have no second-round pick. That went to Golden State in the 1989 deal for Winston Garland.

Mock NBA Draft

How the first round of today’s NBA draft should go, according to Times staff writer Mark Heisler:

NO TEAM PROJECTED SELECTION HGT WGT 1 Orlando Shaquille O’Neal 7-0 303 2 Charlotte Alonzo Mourning 6-10 249 3 Minnesota Christian Laettner 6-10 239 4 Dallas Jim Jackson 6-4 220 5 Denver LaPhonso Ellis 6-8 234 6 Washington Tom Gugliotta 6-9 240 7 Sacramento Adam Keefe 6-9 241 8 Milwaukee Walt Williams 6-7 227 9 Philadelphia Clarence Weatherspoon 6-5 252 10 Atlanta Bryant Stith 6-5 214 11 Houston Todd Day 6-7 190 12 Miami Harold Miner 6-4 220 13 Denver (from N.J.) Robert Horry 6-8 215 14 Indiana Malik Sealy 6-6 192 15 Lakers Doug Christie 6-6 212 16 Clippers Lee Mayberry 6-1 180 17 Seattle Anthony Peeler 6-3 212 18 San Antonio Tracy Murray 6-6 228 19 Detroit Marlon Maxey 6-8 255 20 New York Hubert Davis 6-3 182 21 Boston P.J. Brown 6-10 225 22 Phoenix Popeye Jones 6-7 265 23 Utah Don MacLean 6-9 229 24 Golden State Sean Rooks 6-10 254 25 Clippers (from Clev.) Elmore Spencer 6-11 290 26 Portland Randy Woods 5-11 185 27 Chicago Jon Barry 6-4 191

NO COLLEGE 1 LSU 2 Georgetown 3 Duke 4 Ohio State 5 Notre Dame 6 N. Carolina State 7 Stanford 8 Maryland 9 S. Mississippi 10 Virginia 11 Arkansas 12 USC 13 Alabama 14 St. John’s 15 Pepperdine 16 Arkansas 17 Missouri 18 UCLA 19 Texas El Paso 20 N. Carolina 21 Louisiana Tech 22 Murray State 23 UCLA 24 Arizona 25 UNLV 26 LaSalle 27 Georgia Tech