Players say this isn’t their argument

Coach Mike Dunleavy briefly met with his team before the shoot-around Wednesday to discuss the public rift recently revealed between him and owner Donald T. Sterling.

The players vowed that it would not trickle down to affect them.

“That’s between Donald and Mike,” Corey Maggette said. “We are just trying to stay focused and play basketball. It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t think it’s a distraction to me right now.”

Maggette also said he had no reaction to learning that there was a discussion to trade him to the Dallas Mavericks over the summer for guard Jason Terry.

For the most part, players said they could see both sides -- that Sterling and Dunleavy both want the team to win -- but that the strife didn’t concern them.

They said the meeting with Dunleavy lasted all of a couple minutes and was to basically let the players know that the situation was occurring.

“I know there are times when you are caught off guard in the heat of the moment when you say some things you otherwise wouldn’t say,” Brevin Knight said. “For me, I stay away from the whole thing.”

Said Sam Cassell, who added that the team is well-prepared for its games: “When you don’t communicate, things like that happen. When you do communicate, things usually work themselves out.”

The other failed deal mentioned this week was Dunleavy’s attempt to land point guard Beno Udrih, who happened to be at Staples Center playing for the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.

Udrih was with the San Antonio Spurs last year, backing up Tony Parker. He was traded to Minnesota, then waived, before landing in Sacramento.

“I heard that they wanted to get me here, but the deal never went through with the Spurs,” Udrih said. “I heard they tried to bring me over here. I don’t know. I didn’t want to think about [if it was close to happening] too much. It hurt me thinking about where I’m going to go, where I’m going to end up, so I just had my agent do all that.”

Udrih, who started most of the season while Mike Bibby was injured, is averaging 13.8 points and 4.6 assists.

“I just wanted to go right away, to be somewhere with a team and get used to the place before I start playing, so I went to the Kings,” he said.

Elton Brand is scheduled for his next medical examination today in Wilmington, Del., to check the status of his surgically repaired Achilles’ tendon. If he shows progress, Brand will be cleared to begin jumping more forcefully.

“Hopefully, my doctor [Craig Morgan] will clear me and I’ll come back here and [team physician] Dr. Tony Daly will clear me and I’ll be able to start doing some more things,” Brand said before catching his flight.

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jonathan.abrams@latimes.com