Clippers Ease Jam by Trading Nesby

The Clippers addressed a season-long playing-time problem Tuesday when they traded swingman Tyrone Nesby to the Washington Wizards for big men Cherokee Parks and Obinna Ekezie.

“We had too many perimeter players and we felt we had to move somebody so we could be in a situation where there no longer was a logjam,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “Trading Tyrone helps us get into a better rotation.”

With the Clippers riding a five-game losing streak and the progress of young players Darius Miles, Quentin Richardson and Corey Maggette stagnating, Nesby, 24, became the odd man out.

Last week, the Clippers nearly sent Nesby to Miami, which was looking for an athletic swingman to fill salary-cap room that became available when Alonzo Mourning was sidelined because of illness, but the Heat decided against trading and instead picked up veteran Cedric Ceballos from Detroit Sunday for a draft choice.

“This is nothing personal against Nesby,” Gentry said. “We just like all of our young kids.”

In Parks, a 6-foot-11 center, the Clippers pick up a six-year NBA veteran who will provide more size in the middle. Parks played in 13 games with the Wizards, averaging 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 13.7 minutes. In his last game with Washington, Parks came off the bench to tie a career high with 13 rebounds in a victory over Milwaukee.

“Cherokee is a big guy who can step out on the floor and shoot the basketball,” Gentry said. “He’s a good outside shooter for a big guy.”

Ekezie, a second-year 6-9 power forward from Maryland, has not played much. In 10 games, he has averaged 1.2 points and 1.4 rebounds in 6.2 minutes.

Both Parks, 28, and Ekezie, 25, are in the final year of their contracts. Nesby has another year on a three-year, $9-million deal he signed after his rookie season, when the Clippers matched an offer made by the San Antonio Spurs.

Nesby, a 6-6 swingman from Nevada Las Vegas, began the season on the bench, played sparingly in the first two games and not at all in the third. He then started the next 12 games at shooting guard, even though Elgin Baylor, vice president of basketball operations, considers him a better small forward.

“Nesby will get an opportunity to play more [with Washington] at his natural position,” Baylor said.

Nesby is averaging 8.1 points and is shooting only 32.5%, 21.7% from behind the three-point line.

After a solid 1999 lockout-shortened rookie season, during which he went from non-drafted free agent to starting small forward, Nesby’s role with the Clippers slowly changed.

Last season, he lost his starting position to Lamar Odom and ended up playing most of his minutes at shooting guard, averaging 13.3 points.