Questions Outnumber Answers

The Clippers must trim their roster to 15 players today.

One way to do it is to waive free-agent forwards Mike Batiste and Tremaine Fowlkes and then put forwards Melvin Ely (sore toe) and Lamar Odom (sprained ankle) and guard Bryant Stith (knee surgery) on the injured list. That would leave the Clippers with 12 players on the active roster to start the season.

If Coach Alvin Gentry sticks to his plan to use an eight- or nine-man rotation and the Clippers are more free of injury than they have been during training camp, the last three or four bench players aren’t going to take off their warm-ups too often this season.

The starting five appears to be set, with Elton Brand at power forward, Michael Olowokandi at center, Corey Maggette at small forward (until Odom is fit), Quentin Richardson at shooting guard and Andre Miller at point guard.

The top reserves are expected to be guards Marko Jaric and Eric Piatkowski, forward Cherokee Parks and center Sean Rooks -- at least to start the season.

It remains to be seen how often Gentry will play guard Keyon Dooling, forward Chris Wilcox or center Wang Zhizhi, particularly after Odom regains his fitness after being sidelined by a badly sprained right ankle since February.

Because of a string of injuries during camp, Gentry may want to expand his rotation while several injured players work themselves into game shape.

In particular, Brand and Olowokandi are not locks to start in the opener Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brand underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Sept. 26 and Olowokandi has tendinitis in his left knee and a strained left hip.

Neither played in any of the eight exhibitions.

The Clippers also might wish to trade a player to simplify their rotation, but Gentry on Sunday termed a trade “very unlikely” because so many teams in the NBA are “on the verge of the luxury tax and don’t want to go over it.”

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Gentry has had to scale back a new game plan for 2002-03 because injured players have missed so much time.

The Clippers will play tighter defense farther up the court to try to create turnovers and force the opposition into taking hurried shots as the 24-second shot clock winds down. But Gentry hasn’t introduced other new wrinkles because injuries have left the team so far behind.

“We’re not really playing catch-up, but we’ve tried to eliminate some things so we could concentrate on getting good at some other things,” he said.

“We’re not going to introduce some plays yet. We’re giving some guys a little more freedom to create things. We’ve got some smart players, in general.”