Maggette’s Happy to Be Here

Corey Maggette, who 13 months ago was considered one of the NBA’s potential stars, made his first appearance as a Clipper during a news conference on Friday at Staples Center and said he hopes his third NBA team in less than two seasons will be his final one for a while.

“I think it is going to be a great rebuilding process with the team the Clippers have right now,” said Maggette, a 6-foot-6 swingman acquired in a draft-day trade with Orlando.

“They made a lot of moves . . . to build up their program. Hopefully, this season we’ll start to work things out.”

Maggette left Duke after his freshman season in 1998-99 and also was involved in a draft-day trade last year, when the Seattle SuperSonics selected him 13th and sent him to Orlando. He averaged only 17.8 minutes for the Magic as a rookie.

He is one of seven new players picked up by the Clippers last month.

None, however, is expected to play on the Clippers’ summer league team, which began practice Friday under Clipper assistant coach Dennis Johnson and opens play Monday at the Pyramid in Long Beach.

Elgin Baylor, vice president of basketball operations, said that he’s pleased with the team’s outlook after it ended last season with the league’s worst record.

Although the Clippers are still without a head coach, he said that the team has expanded the search to five candidates and will not rush to choose one.

Current Denver assistant John Lucas and Johnson are still considered front-runners. Baylor would not name the other candidates.

Johnson said that he doesn’t feel added pressure to win with the Clippers’ Pro Summer League team, comprised mostly of free agents seeking jobs for next season.

“We would all like a perfect situation, but there are only 29 of these [head coaching] jobs and only two open now,” Johnson said. “You do what you can to impress the people that you need to impress and then you go on from there. If it doesn’t, I know I put my best foot forward. . . .

Derek Strong, who also came to the Clippers in the deal with Orlando, said Friday that the franchise is doing the right thing by taking its time in naming a coach because of its abundance of youth.

“I don’t think it really matters if it is an established [NBA] coach or a college coach [who coaches the Clippers next season],” said Strong, 32, who has played with six teams in nine NBA seasons. “They just need a guy who can come in here and be able to relate to the young players.”

In one roster move Friday, the Clippers waived guard Charles Jones. He played 56 games last season, averaging 3.4 points. Forward Etdrick Bohannon underwent an MRI exam on his left knee and is not expected to play in the summer league.