Clippers Are Just Half Bad

Those in Clipper management looking for reasons this season not to love Maurice Taylor have found another one.

He’s not a leader.

They have already questioned whether he’s a power forward, emphasizing his 6.0 rebounds over his 17.9 points a game and his lackadaisical defense over the double teams he attracts on offense that make other players--Lamar Odom, for example--better.

So who is Taylor, they ask, to criticize teammate Michael Olowokandi for not giving better effort?

Well, Taylor argues, he is the captain.

Management concedes that point, then adds, “Captain, captain thyself.” With greater commitment, shouldn’t Taylor average at least 10 rebounds a game and play Antonio McDyess-type defense?

Besides, management adds, if Taylor is a bona fide captain, he should know better than to critique Olowokandi to the media, guaranteeing a controversy for a team that needs one like it needs Benoit Benjamin to come back. Taylor should have confined his remarks to the locker room, preferably in a private conversation with Olowokandi.

Taylor concedes this point, but does it really matter? Management, which didn’t seem before the season to be leaning toward giving him the maximum money he can earn under the new collective bargaining agreement when he becomes a free agent this summer, now seems to be leaning against it.

Who’s to say they’re wrong?

It’s doubtful there are any other teams willing to pay him the maximum $70.9 million for seven years, either. I would argue that Taylor is more valuable to the Clippers than to other teams because signing him would indicate to free agents, including Clipper guard Derek Anderson, that the organization no longer wants to be known as the Dress for Less store next to the Lakers’ Brooks Brothers. But perhaps the Clippers can do that without signing Taylor. Surely, they have a plan.

*

There is another issue that should be of at least equal concern to the Clippers:

What if Taylor is right about Olowokandi?

Until last week, the 7-foot center didn’t receive nearly as much scrutiny from media, fans or even teammates as you might expect of a player selected first in the 1998 NBA draft.

Born in Nigeria, raised in England, he had played in only 77 organized games--all at the University of Pacific--entering his first NBA season. Unfortunately for him, it was a strike-shortened one, giving him only an additional 45 games’ experience.

At times this season, he has shown the potential that legendary coach Pete Newell raved about during his summer big-man camps in Hawaii. Through the first 29 games, he had six double-double (points-rebounds) games, including three consecutive. At other times, Olowokandi has looked like a project. Nine times, he had five or fewer rebounds.

The Clippers’ 122-100 loss at Houston last Thursday night was one of the poorer efforts for a number of players, including Olowokandi. Even without Hakeem Olajuwon to contend with because of an injury, Olowokandi contributed only four points and four rebounds in 25 minutes.

Benched by Coach Chris Ford, Olowokandi pouted, refusing to leave his seat and huddle with his teammates during a timeout. Several players, including Taylor, were clearly irritated by him.

“He’s got to step up because he’s nonexistent,” Taylor said afterward.

Olowokandi says he didn’t read the newspaper the next day and wasn’t aware of Taylor’s comments. But Olowokandi was still bothered by his teammates’ rebuke in Houston. After all, he’s hardly the first Clipper to show disrespect to Ford this season, and he has been playing with an aching knee when others might not have.

So Olowokandi showed them what it’s like for him to be really nonexistent. He didn’t attend practice Friday.

*

By Tuesday night, Olowokandi looked more like a trendsetter than a malcontent. He returned to practice, but three teammates--Odom, Anderson and Charles Jones--were absent Sunday.

Some had better excuses than others--only Olowokandi and Odom were fined as far as we know--but it didn’t look like a team primed to play the Lakers, who beat the Clippers by 27 three weeks ago.

After the Clippers’ shoot-around Tuesday morning, Ford was asked how he thought his team would play.

He laughed, as if he’s given up trying to figure out the Clippers. Welcome to the club.

They all had something to prove. Most of them played like it for two quarters. They led, 61-59, at halftime before collapsing under the Lakers’ defensive pressure, 122-98.

“It was an entertaining first half,” Ford said. “Unfortunately, there’s an intermission, and you have to come back.”

The game might have entertained the Staples Center crowd of 20,042, the largest to see an NBA game in Southern California, longer if the Clippers had gotten more production from Olowokandi.

Instead, he fouled three times in the first three minutes and 15 seconds, played only 22 minutes and finished with one point. No one expects him to outscore Shaquille O’Neal, who had 38, but one point?

Although Olowokandi had 10 rebounds, he wasn’t as effective as his backup, Keith Closs, who had six points, four rebounds and four blocked shots.

Asked if he would consider a change in the starting lineup, Ford thought about it a moment.

“Michael is dealing with heat and pressure,” he said. “I’m trying to do what I can to keep him in the flow. But it’s a difficult time for him right now.”

Considering that no Clipper had more to prove Tuesday night than Olowokandi did, you would have thought this would be, to borrow from Pat Riley, a statement game for him. He didn’t make one. Let’s hope Taylor hasn’t already made it for him.

*

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com