A Bubbly Feeling for the Clippers

For the Lakers it was a day of addition, while for the Clippers it was about defection and retention. Ordinarily that would add up to a “W” for the Lakers, but in the new local balance it’s advantage Clippers.

It’s impossible to consider one team without comparison to the other these days. And in this case the Clippers’ lengthy scroll of futility actually works in their favor.

They don’t have the championship banners and retired numbers literally hanging over their heads. The one good thing about not having any red-white-and-blue fabric on the Clippers side of Staples Center (Do they even have a side? Have they bothered to reserve space?) is that it makes otherwise ordinary accomplishments seem champagne-worthy.

Yes, that was a bottle of Dom Perignon embossed with the Clippers logo being toted out of the Chick Hearn press room toward Sam Cassell’s limo at Staples Center on Wednesday after the Clippers announced Cassell had re-signed for two more years.

The mood was more upbeat and celebratory there than when the Lakers introduced Vladimir Radmanovic at their El Segundo practice facility a little later in the afternoon. Radmanovic, who signed a free-agent contract with the Lakers after spending the second half of last season with the Clippers, brings some needed marksmanship to Lakerland.

He just doesn’t bring them back to championship contention.

Maybe that’s why there was such a different sound to the topic of expectations.

Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy on the upcoming season: “My expectations are always higher than everybody else’s.... We have a shot” at a championship.

Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak on Radmanovic: “He expects to play and we expect to play him.”

And that really explains why there were two separate news conferences instead of a joint Cassell-Radmanovic photo op in Clipper Country.

The Clippers made the same five-year, $31-million offer to Radmanovic but didn’t make the same promise of playing time. So Radmanovic moved down the hall.

“The Lakers were more specific with what they want from me and how I’m going to fit in with the team,” he said.

He’ll help a team that was in the middle of the pack in three-point shooting last year. There’s one quandary defenses will face that they didn’t last year: let Kobe Bryant drive on one player, or send Radmanovic’s man to double-team him?

Radmanovic promised to do his part to make Bryant’s life easier.

“I’ll be open,” Radmanovic said. “All he has to do is pass it.”

The Clippers don’t fret over the loss of Radmanovic because they signed Tim Thomas, who had a slightly higher three-point percentage last season (41% to 39%) and isn’t as much of a defensive liability.

“Personally, I think we got a better all-around player,” Clippers General Manager Elgin Baylor said.

Thomas isn’t the final piece of a championship puzzle, either.

The Clippers are a more complete team than the Lakers, primarily because Elton Brand is the best front-court player on the West Coast. But Dunleavy’s reaching too far when he talks about rings. The Clippers still stand behind Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix in the Western Conference line.

The reason Clippers fans can feel good about this summer’s developments is they show a step toward stability. Instead of players sprinting out of town as if someone fired a starter’s pistol -- remember, Brand and Corey Maggette tried to leave by signing elsewhere as restricted free agents before the Clippers matched the contracts -- there was Cassell, happily signing on for two more years then mugging for the cameras and saying “It’s official!”

“It’s like you get a taste of something you never had before,” Cassell said. “You acquire the taste. I think Donald [Sterling] acquired the taste to win. And it felt good to him. It only takes the one time, you get a craving for it. I think he got a craving for winning now. He’s a businessman. He’s going to do what he has to do to make money. He stepped up big by signing me back, signing Tim Thomas. He’s getting a good product on the floor.”

Now Cassell can continue grooming Shaun Livingston, whose progress is essential if the Clippers want to play in June.

The Lakers will have to look outside for another superstar. And be patient. It looks like the store is just about closed for this summer.

“We don’t have anything about to happen,” Kupchak said.

Minnesota’s additions of Randy Foye and Mike James make a Kevin Garnett trade even less likely. Lakers fans might as well move on to the next fantasy: LeBron James or Dwyane Wade in purple and gold. They both signed three-year extensions Wednesday, taking less guaranteed money for a shot at the potential bounty of unrestricted free agency in 2010.

Now most people expect James and Wade to take advantage of an important milestone (the seventh NBA season) and the “home-team” advantage to sign lucrative contracts with their own teams.

But if you’re wondering, the only salary the Lakers currently have on the books for that year is Bryant’s at almost $25 million, leaving plenty of room for the Lakers to make a run at another superstar. Or Bryant could opt out of his contract, setting up a literal changing of the guard. Hmmmm.

That’s the thing about the Lakers. Even when they don’t lead the building in victories, they still lead the NBA in intrigue.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande go to latimes.com/adandeblog.