CLIPPERS SHOULD MOVE - AWAY.

Byline: MARC STEIN 

Last Thursday, the last chance for teams to make trades, no move was the wise move for the Clippers.

Again, that was last week.

The new week features a new deadline, and this one begs a big move. Demands it, really.

You already know the offer. About an hour south of Clippers Central sits a state-of-the-art sports facility that has hockey but needs hoops. The Clippers have been invited to fill the void for, oh, the last five years.

You also know that we'll probably be making the same plea - GO, already - to owner Donald T. Sterling on March 1, 1997, since Friday is the Clippers' annual deadline to terminate their Sports Arena lease in time for next season, and there's no indication Sterling is ready to pack up.

Mind you, he is the only one with, well, reservations. Clippers executives want to work out of Anaheim. Commissioner David Stern wants to sit courtside in Anaheim. Even Bill Fitch and his players have a fondness for the Pond - what they dislike is splitting games (and riding buses) between two home sites.

As always, Sterling's argument against relocating to Anaheim Arena is Disney's stranglehold on the profits there, with the NHL's Mighty Ducks controlling the revenue from luxury suites, stadium signage, concessions, et al.

The potential windfall from constructing their own facility in downtown L.A., Sterling maintains, is too great to forsake.

What has become clear, as the Clippers' arena project approaches its second decade, is that the potential is just as great that the Lakers and hockey's Kings build their new arena first.

That Magic Johnson will play another season and obscure the Clippers more than ever.

That Shaquille O'Neal will come west to wear purple and gold - and then where would the Clippers be?

At that point, leveraged-out, they'd have to overpay their way into Disneyland like everyone else.

No one's asking Sterling, one of L.A.'s most loyal citizens, to rename his team the Anaheim or Orange County Clippers - although that would ensure support from fans behind the curtain.

And no one's asking the man who has "never sold anything in my life" to let Disney purchase a minority share in the team - although that might help the Clippers negotiate a much more favorable timeshare with the Ducks.

Just make the best deal possible and regain (establish?) your NBA identity.

One more year is too long to be known as the franchise that is more apt to change the coach than its address.

A new trade: Forget the concept of roster-restructuring. The new rage is money-laundering.

It used to be that trades at the midseason deadline were designed to shake up a dormant or dysfunctional team or provide a contender with that one last piece to challenge for the title.

Not anymore. Teams that made moves before last Thursday's buzzer were almost exclusively interested in creating salary-cap room for this summer's free-agent bonanza, which will put no fewer than eight of the 24 participants in the recent All-Star Game on the open market.

The strategy is virtually law in Miami, where Pat Riley has jettisoned all five of his opening-night starters to bring in Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Chris Gatling, Walt Williams, Tyrone Corbin and Tony Smith. None of whom, of course, are under contract for next season once Williams exercises an option at year's end to terminate his current pact.

As a result, the Heat will have roughly $14 million to spend even after using the $6.9 million needed to retain the rights to Mourning past July 1. Riley thus has the flexibility to pursue Gary Payton and Reggie Miller or, if Payton and Miller aren't interested, keep Hardaway and Williams.

New York's payroll has been similarly lightened, after the contracts of Charles Smith (San Antonio) and Doug Christie (Toronto) were dumped. Like the Lakers, the Knicks can now get almost $10 million under the cap come summer, with Mourning, Miller and Juwan Howard already mentioned as targets.

The climate throughout the league is such that Orlando's Jeff Turner - dealt to Vancouver for Kenny Gattison - was one of the most desired players in trade talks because a) he's in the final year of a $1.2 million contract and b) he's expected to retire because of a knee injury.

"Just about every deal made today is to clear money . . . and that's fine," said Detroit coach Doug Collins, whose team, coincidentally, is also positioned capwise to make a free-agent splash. "I have no problem with that. But, like I tell everybody here, you can't play with cash."

Just teasing: Frenzied as the final hours before Thursday's trading deadline were, plenty of big names didn't switch teams despite numerous suggestions that they would.

Portland's Rod Strickland, Golden State's Rony Seikaly, Atlanta's Ken Norman, New Jersey's P.J. Brown and Boston's Dee Brown and Eric Montross ultimately stayed where they are, as did Vancouver veteran Byron Scott.

One difference: Scott, while on pace to miss the playoffs for the first time in his 13 seasons, is perhaps the only player in that group happy not to move.

"It's very flattering to get a lot of requests for your services, especially in the position I'm in and as long as I've been playing," said Scott, reportedly sought by Houston, Miami, Chicago and Phoenix.

"But I'd like to finish my career in Vancouver. I've said that and stated that right from the day I got here. You go through this in your career a number of times. I used to let it bother me, but that's the part of the business that you learn to deal with and respect."

CBA corner: Absent from active NBA duty since being waived by the Clippers in early January of '95, Matt Fish finally has resurfaced. Earning him a 10-day contract with the Knicks was a stretch of 14 double-doubles in 16 games that pushed Fish's season averages with Fort Wayne (Ind.) to 15.2 points and 9.4 rebounds.

Fish finished last season in Argentina and made Detroit's team in November, but never played a game for the Pistons after breaking two ribs . . . by coughing too hard. A crowd favorite during his 26-game stint with the Clippers - averaging 4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds - Fish now will be asked to fill in for New York's top two rebounders, the injured Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley. He is the CBA's league-record 61st alumnus on a current NBA roster.

Buzzer-beater: Noting that brother Brent of the Clippers won the league's annual slam-dunk contest and Drew, another sibling and a senior at Georgia Tech, scored 30 points in a win over North Carolina that same day, Golden State's Jon Barry was asked what he did Feb. 10:

"I shot 78 on a golf course. They had great days. I didn't do anything worth a darn."

THE REAL 411

As expected, Golden State was the first of the three California teams in need to announce plans for a new arena. The Warriors will spend next season at the Cow Palace in San Francisco while the Oakland Coliseum Arena undergoes a $121 million renovation. When it reopens for the '97-'98 season, the building will feature 19,200 seats, 72 luxury suites and 3,000 club-level seats. . . .

Charles Barkley, who just became the 10th player all-time to collect 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds, is also the shortest player to get there. Listed at 6-foot-6, Barkley is actually closer to 6-4, an inch shorter than Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor. "I don't worry too much about height," Barkley said. "I always tell kids when I talk to them to not put limitations on themselves. Just because you are short, or from the ghetto, or from a small town, you can be just as successful as anyone else. I've played with a lot of tall people who couldn't play. Joe Kleine comes to mind." . . .

In Detroit, like Los Angeles, the new breed has to play under the the constant shadow of the glory days. Reacting to the recent Isiah Thomas jersey retirement, Grant Hill said: "There was a lot of love in the building. It makes you wish you could have been here when all of that was going on. It makes you wish that you can someday get to where they've been." And Allan Houston: "The Bad Boys are always going to hold a special place in the hearts of Detroit fans. We aren't going to erase that. We have to earn something for ourselves." . . .

The trade of Christian Laettner to Atlanta means Minnesota has dealt away six first-round picks in its seven-year history. Laettner's predecessors: Pooh Richardson (to Indiana in 1992), Felton Spencer (Utah in '93), Gerald Glass (Detroit in '92), Luc Longley (Chicago in '94) and Donyell Marshall (Golden State in '95). Laettner did manage to survive longer than any other of his peers - three seasons and 51 games - but his departure leaves J.R. Rider and Kevin Garnett as the Wolves' only first-rounders. . . .

Shaquille O'Neal, who is vowing to skip future All-Star Games because of his MVP snub, has also promised not to shoot another 3-pointer now that he's 1 for 1. "That's it," Shaq said. "I'm going to end the year perfect from 3-point territory." Word is the league will invite O'Neal to the Long Distance Shootout to get him back to the midseason classic.

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