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None of this has been surprising if you stop and think about it.

The Los Angeles Clippers didn't win a championship last season, but winning a playoff series and nearly winning another led to everyone saying they had arrived. They got to be the fat cats for a change, especially after many of them were sated with fat new contracts.

The preseason preparations were poor, too, when Coach Mike Dunleavy couldn't get past the distractions of training camp in Russia (Yaroslav Korolev's not doing anything anyway, so why not make him the scapegoat?). Meanwhile, everyone facing the Los Angeles Clippers this season was moremotivated after seeing them gain legitimacy last season.

There was only one way to have stopped all of that from happening: if the Los Angeles Clippers' leader had pushed the other way.

We're not talking about Elton Brand, even though he is a respectable and great player. The Los Angeles Clippers' engine last season was Sam Cassell, whose massive personality and bravado previously helped stoic stars Hakeem Olajuwon in Houston and Kevin Garnett in Minnesota reach their greatest team successes.

You've got to love Sam Cassell because he's such a rare bird. To have a guy doing the tough-guy work while laughing all the way through it is like finding a fun-loving kamikaze pilot. But Sam Cassell is not exactly a go-getter. The happy-go-lucky types will relax if their situations allow, which is why Sam Cassell historically plays his most games only in his first season in a new city. That's when he has something to prove — like he did last season in Los Angeles.

Sam Cassell worked out hard in Houston the summer of 2005 — but not again last summer. And in an NBA news development this season as shocking as Ron Artest having personal problems in Sacramento or Rasheed Wallace leading the league in technical fouls in Detroit, Sam Cassell, 37, has been hurt a lot this season.

What has been amazing is the sheer variety of ailments that have stricken Sam Cassell — calf, ankle, heel, abdomen, groin and back. Perhaps the New England Journal of Medicine should undertake a study on how it's possible that Sam Cassell's right hamstring, which cost him 23 games two years ago, actually held together during all of that.

Sam Cassell's in-and-out lineup status became disruptive to the Los Angeles Clippers, who have struggled to climb out of this team-wide complacency. Intracity games meant to rev up fan interest for the playoffs are on tap Wednesday and again April 12, but neither the Los Angeles Clippers nor the Los Angeles Lakers have been able to step clearly forward this season.

The Los Angeles Clippers are just now finding a little flow with a mini-Sam Cassell in there full time: Jason Hart, who isn't as talented but is similarly feisty. None of the other guard fill-ins — remember that the Los Angeles Clippers signed Doug Christie, not his wife — have had anything close to the requisite tenacious attitude to push this tentative team

Hart might have to do for as long as the Los Angeles Clippers play this season. Sam Cassell's bad back means his best availability might be half-speed in the postseason, and Shaun Livingston's devastating knee injury means he might not come back even after next season.

But consider the plus-minus numbers (point margin when a player is on the floor) from www.82games.com for Sam Cassell and Shaun Livingston. Last season, Sam Cassell was plus-7.6; Shaun Livingston was minus-5.5. This season, Sam Cassell is plus-5.3; Shaun Livingston is minus-7.2. (Hart is net-0, by the way.) Sam Cassell has rated higher than Brand both seasons, too.

That's how big the Sam Cassell issue is — and will be as the Los Angeles Clippers leave complacency behind and look to make good on all the talent they have under contract for the future. The Los Angeles Clippers realized Sam Cassell was looking more and more like a crash-test dummy. That's why they initially refused last summer to give him a two-year contract until the Atlanta Hawks came in and raised the stakes. But banking on the injury-prone Shaun Livingston, 21, to take over instead of daring to deal big (bear in mind that tough-minded star guards such as Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd and Baron Davis were on the trade market) leaves the Clippers' future uncertain.

Even if Sam Cassell works hard this offseason, believing he can carry such a load at 38 is unrealistic. The Los Angeles Clippers are now capped-out on salary, but the free-agent guard market is light anyway — with one exception: Chauncey Billups.

If the Los Angeles Clippers are willing to ante up for Billups, 30, they can bid big with sign-and-trade chips besides Corey Maggette: If Minnesota's first-round pick isn't in the top 10, the Los Angeles Clippers will have that pick and their own in the middle of the first round in one of the deepest drafts in recent history. Billups, who has said he is open to leaving Detroit, would be a dream solution and has the drive to push the Los Angeles Clippers into true title contention.

If not, the Los Angeles Clippers will have to figure out something else. One other option is Sam Cassell joining Dunleavy's staff upon retiring, yet even that wouldn't keep the plucky rare bird on the floor.

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