Clippers Get Face Lift

Looks like they won’t have Elgin Baylor to kick around any more.

In one amazing draft day, the Clippers went from laughingstock to . . . what? Most exciting young team in town? In the league? In the world?

To a team that already had Lamar Odom was added Darius Miles, the high school phenom Michael Jordan compared to Kevin Garnett . . . the super-gifted Corey Maggette . . . two more No. 1s, Keyon Dooling, the first point guard taken Wednesday, and Quentin Richardson . . . plus a highly-regarded Yugoslav guard, Marko Jaric, with the first pick of the second round.

What the Clips want to know now is, when do the Lakers want to get together for a scrimmage, our rookies vs. your rookies?

It’s a new day for the Clippers. This should be a turnaround season as they fly up and down the court and challenge for the playoffs under the tutelage of Coach . . . uh . . . uh . . . who’s their coach again?

Oh yeah, there’s that. They don’t have one.

OK, so it isn’t a new day. The team that waited out the 1999 lockout before hiring a coach--why waste money when there was no one to coach?--is again without a sideline leader. Owner Donald T. Sterling, otherwise known as the fly in the ointment, has been on vacation, as he usually is in the spring, and unavailable to sign off on a coach, which was why the process dragged out yet again.

In the midst of repeating this the old Clipper Joke came Wednesday’s draft. The Clippers were supposed to get Marcus Fizer at No. 3 and a point guard, such as Erick Barkley, at No. 18.

This would almost, but not quite make up for losing free agents Mo Taylor and Derek Anderson in the annual Clipper Coming/Going Ritual.

But a funny thing happened. Onto the scene strode the Orlando Magic, eager to trade for Miles, desperate to move $3.5 million-a-year reserve Derek Strong to clear cap space for a run at free agents Tim Duncan and Grant Hill.

The Magic and Clippers arrived at an understanding:

The Clippers would take Miles at No. 3. If the Bulls at No. 4, stayed off Fizer, Orlando would take him at No. 5 and send him to the Clips with Maggette, Strong and No. 10.

So Baylor, the Clipper general manager, drafted Miles. The Bulls, shocked, took Fizer, messing everything up.

Then in the most unbelievable development of the day, Orlando General Manager John Gabriel, determined to get Strong off his cap by any means necessary, made the deal anyway--just without Miles in it.

The Clippers got Maggette and No. 10, and took Strong off Orlando’s hands. Orlando got a future No. 1 pick.

So Baylor got Dooling at 10, Richardson at 18, Jaric at 30, traded for Sean Rooks and the next thing you knew, there was an entire, new, deep, talented and athletic Clipper team.

And the best thing about it--if you’re Clipper management anyway--none of these guys can leave for years!

There’s a new five-year rookie cap in place now, instead of the three-year deal that Taylor and Anderson came in under. So even if these guys hate it here, they won’t be leaving for a long time.

Of course, it would be nice if the organization changed enough so that everyone didn’t hate being here, but that remains to be seen.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing,” a jubilant Baylor said Wednesday night, “we’ve probably got the most athletic team. Now we just have to get it together.”

This is easier said than done, especially for the Clippers.

The Clippers will not only be incredibly athletic but woefully inexperienced. If Miles and Dooling start, the lineup will have a total of five seasons’ experience, a prescription for disaster. (See 1999-2000 season, when what may have been the most talented roster in Los Angeles Clipper history went 15-67.)

Baylor says he’d like to find a veteran point guard, “someone who could play significant minutes, not just give lip service on the bench, somebody who’d be very vocal on the floor and in the locker room.”

In other words, he doesn’t want Sherman Douglas back.

That’s OK, the Clippers will still have about $5 million of cap room to shop with. Who knows, now someone may even take their call.

Then there’s the coach sweepstakes, in which more applicants seemed to edge back into the picture Wednesday.

As Baylor bagged prospect after hot prospect, all the TNT announcers covering the draft, who had interviewed for the Clipper job, began getting hangdog looks.

Mike Fratello acknowledged he talked to them. The way that went, Fratello hit them with a big number, like $5 million a year, and that ended that.

John Thompson said he talked to them too. A boyhood friend of Baylor, Thompson withdrew, either because he thought he’d get the New Jersey job, or he found out the Clippers wouldn’t be offering a lot of money.

At one point, TNT emcee Ernie Jones asked if he was the only one on the set who hadn’t interviewed for the Clipper job.

And Thompson noted, laughing: “It may be time to go back for another interview.”

It’s time for the Clippers to reopen their selection process. It’s time for Sterling to step up and say, “I don’t care what it costs, we have a fine, young roster, we need a heavyweight coach, not a guy who’s so droolingly grateful for the opportunity, he’ll work for my usual bubkus!”

It always comes down to that moment, when Sterling has to show he’s serious about competing, which is where the whole thing starts to break down, all over again.

But we’ll see, maybe this time will be different. (And maybe the lion will lay down with the lamb and milk and honey will flow in the streets.)

Anyway, for the organization and all its minions, who were so embarrassed by this season and then had to endure the added indignity of a Laker victory dance virtually on their heads, Wednesday was as close to heaven as they’ve been in a long, long, long, long time.

Good luck, little minions, we’ve got our fingers crossed for you.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

First Round

1. NEW JERSEY

Kenyon Martin, f, Cincinnati

2. VANCOUVER

Stromile Swift, f, Louisiana State

3. CLIPPERS

Darius Miles, f, East St. Louis (Ill.) HS

4. CHICAGO

Marcus Fizer, f, Iowa State

5. ORLANDO

Mike Miller, f, Florida

6. ATLANTA

DerMarr Johnson, g, Cincinnati

7. CHICAGO

*Chris Mihm, c, Texas

8. CLEVELAND

*Jamal Crawford, g, Michigan

9. HOUSTON

*Joel Przybilla, c, Minnesota

10. ORLANDO

*Keyon Dooling, g, Missouri

11. BOSTON

Jerome Moiso, f, UCLA

12. DALLAS

Etan Thomas, f-c, Syracuse

13. ORLANDO

*Courtney Alexander, g, Fresno State

14. DETROIT

Mateen Cleaves, g, Michigan State

15. MILWAUKEE

*Jason Collier, c, Georgia Tech

16. SACRAMENTO

Hidayet Turkoglu, g-f, Turkey

17. SEATTLE

Desmond Mason, f, Oklahoma State

18. CLIPPERS

Quentin Richardson, g, DePaul

19. CHARLOTTE

Jamaal Magloire, c, Kentucky

20. PHILADELPHIA

Craig Claxton, g, Hofstra

21. TORONTO

Morris Peterson, f, Michigan State

22. NEW YORK

*Donnell Harvey, f, Florida

23. UTAH

DeShawn Stevenson, g, HS in Fresno

24. CHICAGO

Dalibor Bagaric, c, Croatia

25. PHOENIX

Iakovos Tsakalidis, c, Greece

26. DENVER

Mamadou N’diaye, c, Auburn

27. INDIANA

Primo Brezec, f, Slovenia

28. PORTLAND

Erick Barkley, g, St. John’s

29. LAKERS

Mark Madsen, f, Stanford

* Traded. See Round 1 chart. D8

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EARLY ENTRY

Twenty of the 58 players selected in the 2000 draft made themselves available with college eligibility remaining or were high school seniors this past season.

SOUTHLAND PRODUCTS

Guard Jason Hart (Inglewood High and Syracuse) was picked at No. 49 by Milwaukee, and guard Jaquay Walls (Compton College and Colorado) was picked at No. 56 by Indiana.

FOLLOWING IN

ANOTHER TRADITION

Forward Jerome Moiso goes from UCLA, with one of college basketball’s finest traditions, to the Boston Celtics, a franchise with a storied NBA past that has fallen upon hard times. Moiso was the No. 11 selection in the draft.

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NBA NOTES

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