Signings Signal Move Toward Real Progress

Stability has never been a Clipper hallmark, but perhaps that’s changing.

After this week’s announcement that the club had exercised its fourth-year option on third-year forward Chris Wilcox’s deal, the Clippers have eight players under contract at least through the next two seasons.

Others with deals that run through 2005-06 or beyond include starters Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and Chris Kaman, rookies Shaun Livingston, Lionel Chalmers and Quinton Ross and newcomer Mamadou N’Diaye.

“It’s pretty positive for us,” said Coach Mike Dunleavy, who started his second season with the team when training camp opened Tuesday at Santa Barbara City College. “A lot of assets are in place. It gives us a chance, with the guys we have at their age, to get better. With experience, they have a chance to improve.”

The Clippers, though, could lose Kerry Kittles, Marko Jaric and Bobby Simmons after July 1, 2005, when all three become free agents.

Kittles, in the last year of a contract that will pay him $10.2 million this season, was acquired in a July trade with the New Jersey Nets after the Clippers renounced Quentin Richardson rather than match his six-year, $45-million offer from the Phoenix Suns. The Clippers said they would attempt to sign Kittles, 30, to an extension, but the veteran guard apparently wanted to first test the waters with his new team.

“We’ll wait and see how it unfolds,” he said last week.

Kittles, though, said he could see the upside to staying put.

“I think most guys on the team, they haven’t reached their full potential,” he said. “It all depends on the learning curve and how fast we pick things up and how fast we come together as a team.

“It’s difficult when you have younger guys that need to learn on the job. But I think if guys are willing to learn and sacrifice ... we can turn it around.”

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Livingston joined Kittles and Jaric on the sidelines, sitting out contact drills because of a sprained left ankle suffered last week.... Dunleavy is no fan of new NBA rules that limit practice time, even during two-a-days. “I’m sure Argentina is doing this right now,” he said of the Olympic champion, a semifinal winner over the U.S. at Athens. “I’m sure Argentina’s limiting practice to three hours [a day].”