Clippers Are Likely to Keep Jaric

Whether he likes it or not, Marko Jaric will be back playing for the Clippers next season, the club strongly suggested Wednesday.

General Manager Elgin Baylor, speaking to reporters after a Beverly Hills news conference to formally announce the signing of free agent Cuttino Mobley, said that Jaric’s stated preference to leave “doesn’t make any difference.”

Echoing Baylor’s comments, Coach Mike Dunleavy said, “The bottom line is, whether a player wanted to be here or didn’t want to be here, I don’t necessarily pay a whole lot of attention to that, particularly when a guy’s a free agent. There’s a lot of verbiage that goes on that’s prompted and staged. You just have to know your people. I expect to have Marko back, and I don’t see any issues for him.”

Jaric, a 6-foot-7 guard, is a restricted free agent, meaning that the Clippers hold the right to match any offer made to him by another NBA team.

His agent, Bill Duffy, has stated repeatedly that Jaric, penciled in as a backup after two seasons as a starter, would like to leave. Jaric visited last week with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, and on Tuesday his agent said that the Serb’s preference was “to be elsewhere because he thinks he has a better opportunity to play point guard, which is important to him.”

Said Baylor: “He hasn’t said that to me yet. But it doesn’t make any difference, because a lot of players have said that and they’ve come back. It’s only a question of how he plays. If he comes back and he plays, it doesn’t matter.”

And Dunleavy, who has not wavered in saying he wants him back, said he saw Jaric at dinner last week and, “He didn’t tell me he didn’t want to be here.”

Duffy, who suggested Tuesday that a sign-and-trade deal “would be best for all parties,” said he hoped to meet with the Clippers before the end of the week to clarify Jaric’s position. He expressed disappointment in the club’s stance.

“You would think,” the agent said late Wednesday, “that you’d want to hire somebody that wants to be there.”

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The Clippers couldn’t formally pursue Mobley until after he became a free agent July 1, but Dunleavy had put a bug in his ear months earlier, Mobley said during the news conference. He and Dunleavy spoke, Mobley said, after the left-hander helped the Sacramento Kings to a late-season victory over the Clippers.

“I was talking to Coach after the game, and I was telling him how much I loved Chris Kaman,” Mobley said of the Clipper center. “He was like, ‘We love you too,’ and Coach was encouraging me to come and I was thinking about it. And when the summer came along, it was just a matter of him and I hooking up and the whole situation happening.”

Interjected Dunleavy: “It wasn’t like I was recruiting him.”

Mobley, who signed a five-year, $42-million contract, said that joining the Clippers had never crossed his mind before that night in March.

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Rick Brunson, a starter in 39 games for the Clippers last season, was disappointed that he wasn’t offered a contract to return.

“I wanted to be a Clipper,” said the journeyman point guard, who said he would sign a one-year guaranteed contract with the Seattle SuperSonics this weekend. “They’re the only team that gave me an opportunity to play, showcase my skill, and I had every intention of coming back....

“I was hurt, man.... I still don’t have an answer why I’m not a Clipper. The only answer I got was, ‘We’ll call you back, we’ll let you know.’ ”

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The Clippers, who initially leaned toward keeping first-round draft pick Yaroslav Korolev in Russia for another season, are now “on the fence” about signing the Muscovite teenager this summer, Dunleavy said. After losing Bobby Simmons and monitoring Korolev’s progress this week at a camp in Las Vegas, they might bring the 18-year-old forward to the NBA sooner than expected. The decision will be made, Dunleavy said, before the end of the month.... Backup center Zeljko Rebraca signed a three-year, $9-million contract, with the first two seasons guaranteed.