Players Waste No Time Proving Their Fitness

The first day of the rest of the Clippers’ lives began with a one-mile run Tuesday morning at the College of the Desert. Corey Maggette won it in about 5 minutes 40 seconds, an unmistakable sign of the team’s fitness.

Last year, several players struggled to hit target times of 6:30. This year, everyone completed four laps around the track with plenty of time to spare, pleasing Coach Alvin Gentry.

“Everybody did a great job,” he said. “Corey won, and it wasn’t even close.”

Back indoors, the Clippers went through their first practice of training camp without complaint. Gentry figured it would take him several days to get a handle on the shape of his team but Tuesday’s run showed that the Clippers are fitter than in previous seasons.

Question is, can their potential to excel on the court match the increased expectations? So far, confidence doesn’t seem to be a problem.

“Lots of nights at the end of last season, we all looked at the other team and said among ourselves, ‘We’re going to kill these guys tonight,”’ Eric Piatkowski said. “In past years, we were just hoping to win. In past years, we didn’t really have stars on our team. With Lamar [Odom] and the other young guys maturing, we do now. It’s hard to be successful if you don’t have people like that.”

Gentry is eager to see if a rigorous off-season conditioning program enables others, among them Michael Olowokandi and Quentin Richardson, to join Odom as Clipper go-to guys. Gentry also hopes to get a better look at free agents Harold Jamison and Miles Simon. “[Tuesday] was just a matter of getting them all on the court and having them compete; we didn’t do a whole lot,” Gentry said. “We only have a few changes from last year.”