Wilcox, Ely Get Unexpected Opportunities

Chris Wilcox and Melvin Ely of the Clippers are promising young power forwards, among the first dozen players taken in the 2002 NBA draft.

Wilcox, the more athletic of the two and the eighth overall pick as an early entrant, helped Maryland win the national championship as a sophomore two seasons ago. Ely, more developed in the low post and the No. 12 selection, was a two-time Western Athletic Conference player of the year at Fresno State.

Until last week, however, finding time to develop them was hardly a priority for a team built around Elton Brand, whose new six-year, $82-million contract stamps him as one of the league’s best at the position and a franchise cornerstone.

Priorities changed when Brand, a workhorse expected to log nearly 40 minutes a game after averaging more than 19 points and 10 rebounds in his first four NBA seasons, suffered a broken right foot.

With the Clippers’ top scorer and rebounder sidelined until the middle of next month, Wilcox and Ely will be asked to step into the breach.

“It’s a chance for me to go out there and show my talent,” said Wilcox, who replaced Brand in the starting lineup in Saturday’s game against the Seattle SuperSonics, scoring 13 points and taking four rebounds in a 124-105 loss at Saitama, Japan. “With Elton being gone, everybody has to step up.”

Ely, who started several exhibition games at center, might have gotten the nod over Wilcox if not for a shoulder injury suffered a week earlier.

“Even when Elton was in, I felt I had a good opportunity to play a lot of minutes,” said Ely, adding that he no longer is limited by pain in his left shoulder after playing only three minutes Saturday. “Now, a whole lot of minutes have opened up [at power forward], which is the spot I wanted to play. So I’m trying to bid for it and play hard and show that I can score down low....

“There’s nobody that’s going to get 21 [points] and 15 [rebounds] and do all the things that [Brand] brings, but as long as I can hold down the fort....”

Coach Mike Dunleavy would be delighted.

“For all the guys, the opportunity is there,” Dunleavy said. “They’re going to get some minutes; it just depends on what they do with those minutes.”

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After opening the season with two games against the SuperSonics in Japan, the Clippers are easing into the season. After playing the Nuggets on Friday night at Denver, they’re off until Tuesday night, when they play the Atlanta Hawks in their home opener at Staples Center.

“In one sense, for us it may be better this way,” Dunleavy said, “because it’s eating up some of the clock on Elton.”