CLIPPERS DRAFT: IT'S A BIG DAY FOR CLIPPERS 7-FOOTER KAMEN TAKEN WITH SIXTH PICK ON QUIET DAY.

Byline: Joe Stevens Staff Writer

The Clippers didn't try to make a blockbuster trade. They didn't announce whom their coach will be this season, and they didn't outline their plans for their eight free agents.

It was a relatively tame draft for the Clippers on Thursday, when they selected 7-foot center Chris Kaman from Central Michigan with the sixth overall pick. In a draft in which centers were scarce, the Clippers took a true center they consider the top available post player.

``He has excellent low-post moves, great footwork, uses both the left and right hand and can face the basket and hit the perimeter shot,'' Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor said. ``I think that if there's something he needs to work on, he could probably get a little stronger.''

Kaman is not immediately expected be an impact player. This season, he likely will have a difficult time guarding NBA centers. He weighs 255 pounds, and Baylor said he needs to gain at least 15 pounds.

Kaman's selection could be yet another sign that unrestricted free agent Michael Olowokandi, the No. 1 overall pick from the 1998, will not be re-signed. Last season, Olowokandi said he would not return to the Clippers.

If he leaves, Kaman could give the Clippers security at center, even though Baylor did not accept that idea.

``It doesn't affect his status,'' Baylor said of Olowokandi. ``It has nothing to do with that. (Kaman) was a player that we liked there.''

When the Clippers selected Olowokandi, he was considered a project, as is Kaman. In answering a question unrelated to Olowokandi, Clippers director of player personnel Barry Hecker said something about Kaman that is the opposite of the criticism heard about Olowokandi, who played in 36 games last season and was lost for the season on Feb. 3 when he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.

``One thing that we kept hearing from all of (Kaman's) former coaches was that he is a hard worker and that he really likes to play,'' Hecker said.

Kaman was at Madison Square Garden, where NBA commissioner David Stern announced the first-round selections. Afterward, the center spoke on the phone and said he was happy to be taken by the Clippers and gave compliments to Baylor, owner Donald T. Sterling and all the candidates for the vacant coaching position.

Kaman, 21, left Central Michigan after a junior season in which he averaged 22.4 points and 13.0 rebounds and was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. He was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., and this summer has been working out in Chicago with Michael Jordan's former trainer, Tim Grover.

Also in Chicago, he has been working out with the Clippers' Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, and the three already are developing a relationship.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1) The Clippers selected 7-foot center Chris Kaman from Central Michigan with their first-round pick in Thursday's NBA Draft.

Mark Duncan/Associated Press

(2) CHRIS KAMAN

(3) SOFOKLIS SCHORTSANITIS

Box:

DRAFT CAPSULES

(1) CHRIS KAMAN

(2) SOFOKLIS SCHORTSANITIS

(3) FIRST-ROUND SELECTIONS

(4) SECOND-ROUND SELECTIONS