Clipper Longshots Face a Last-Chance Weekend

If this were a perfect NBA world, 7-foot center Mark Blount and 6-7 forward Juaquin Hawkins would have a good chance of earning a roster spot on the Clippers, who finished with a 17-65 record last season.

Reality, however, does not work that way. Once Michael Olowokandi, the team’s No. 1 draft pick last year, signs a deal today or Saturday as expected, the Clippers will already have 13 players under contract for this season.

For free agents Blount and Hawkins, along with other Clipper camp signees Scott Brooks, Tyrone Nesby and Chris Smith, this weekend’s exhibition games against the Lakers will be their biggest opportunity to impress Coach Chris Ford enough to be kept among the 14 players who will start the season.

“I’m just going to go out and play like I have all camp,” said Blount, released by the Seattle SuperSonics before the start of last season after being drafted in the second round from Pittsburgh in 1997.

“I’m not going to change. I know that I can play at this level; that is not a problem. It’s just consistency I want to work on.”

Hawkins, a former standout at Long Beach State and Lynwood High, played last summer with the Harlem Globetrotters and had a tryout with the Lakers in training camp last season. He also realizes that his chances are slim of sticking with the team once the roster is reduced to 12 two weeks into the season.

“I had a lot of fun playing with the Globetrotters, but my lifelong dream is to play in the NBA,” said Hawkins, who played a key role for the Globetrotters when the team put aside its routine and won the L.A. Pro League last summer. “The Globetrotters are still a part of me, but right now, this is what I’m concentrating on.”

Brooks, a 10-year NBA veteran, and Smith, who has played overseas the last four years, have played well in camp, but Nesby, a rookie forward from Nevada Las Vegas, has caught Ford’s eye.

Nesby, who averaged 16.2 points in two seasons at UNLV, has worked his way up the depth chart and could be an injury away from making the team.

Clipper Notes

Elgin Baylor, vice president of basketball operations, said top draft pick Michael Olowokandi will probably not play against the Lakers this weekend. “He’ll probably [reach Los Angeles] late Friday, no later than Saturday,” Baylor said. . . . One day after having an MRI test done on his sore right knee, Rodney Rogers returned to practice Thursday, but Maurice Taylor did not as he continued to rest his strained right thigh. The MRI result was negative on Rogers’ knee and it will be a game decision whether he will play tonight. Taylor has not practiced for two days and is not expected to play against the Lakers.