Cassell Sounds Happy Now to Join Clippers

One meeting with Coach Mike Dunleavy was all it took for Sam Cassell to embrace the Clippers, who were also upbeat Wednesday on welcoming the point guard.

The 12-year veteran reported as scheduled for his physical, and Cassell’s opening session with Dunleavy set a positive tone, allaying the Clippers’ concerns that their unwillingness to offer him a contract extension might dampen things. Cassell liked what he heard about his role on the team, and he’s eager to prove that the Clippers got the right guy.

According to Cassell, it won’t take long.

“My meeting with Mike was cool, real cool,” he said. “Mike Dunleavy and I are on the same page, which is what I wanted to hear, because our major goal is to win.

“That’s what he wants and that’s what I want, so it was ... the way you want to get it started. I know what I can do, I know the talent they have on this team, and I know what I can do as a part of this team. It’s going to be good, real good.”

That’s the Clippers’ view too.

“Sam likes the talent on our team, and he believes he can make an immediate impact,” said General Manager Elgin Baylor, who also met with Cassell.

“Coach talked to Sam about the team, how he will fit in and how we will use him. ... He’s a heck of a good basketball player. He has the utmost confidence in his ability, and I really believe he will make a difference.”

Especially late in games.

Cassell prefers to have the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers envisioned he would.

“Mike talked about how to do it, how to win, so he said he’s going to use me similar to the way [former coach] Flip Saunders used me in Minnesota,” Cassell said. “I had the ball in my hands down the stretch, and I wanted to take the shot.

“That’s one thing they didn’t have here last year, someone to put the ball in his hands down the stretch and take that leadership. That’s what I love to do. Mike wants to win, so he wants to have me on the court.”

The Clippers sent guards Marko Jaric and Lionel Chalmers to the Timberwolves on Aug. 12 for Cassell and a lottery-protected first-round pick in next year’s draft. Through his agent, Charles Tucker, Cassell expressed “overall concerns” about joining the team, and Tucker had hoped to discuss a contract extension for Cassell, who has a salary of $6.1 million in the final year of his deal.

Baylor, however, shut the door on extension talks, and Cassell apparently has moved on.

“That never came up in the conversation with him,” Baylor said.

Said Tucker: “With Mike Dunleavy here, Sam is coming. He wants to win.”

The Timberwolves ended their relationship with Cassell because of his outspokenness in his bid for an extension, his steep decline in production in the 2004-05 season after having been an All-Star two seasons ago and his age (he turns 36 on Nov. 18).

Cassell, who had hip surgery in June 2004, played in a career-low 59 games. His scoring average dropped from 19.8 points in 2003-04, when he was a second-team All-NBA selection, to 13.5 points -- his least productive season in a decade.

But Cassell said it would be a mistake to underestimate him.

“I had a hamstring injury, and that happens to a whole lot of people,” Cassell said. “That happened, but I’m not worried about it now because I’m in great shape.

“The worst thing a person can do is blow his own horn, and I don’t need to do that. Just sit back and watch. And just get ready to jump on the bandwagon.”

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The Clippers hired Matt Pinto as their radio play-by-play announcer for games televised on FSN West or Channel 5. Pinto comes from the Dallas Mavericks.

Pinto, 43, began his broadcasting career at L.A.’s KIQQ and also worked at KFOX in Redondo Beach.

Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.