Clipper Draft Picture Is Hazy : Basketball: The coachless team has 13th and 53rd draft choices and three players who can be free agents Thursday.

Decision day has come for the Clippers.

They still don’t have a coach and will have three key players who can be free agents on Thursday, but the draft is today, with picks Nos. 13 and 53.

The options, usually considerable, are even greater this time. Thrown into the mix with the several possibilities among the college players are the club’s own uncertainties.

Should the Clippers take Chris Mills because Ken Norman might leave?

Should they draft Allan Houston to supply outside shooting?

Should they grab Nick Van Exel or Lindsey Hunter in anticipation of not re-signing Gary Grant or to protect themselves against future non-development of Randy Woods, last season’s No. 1?

“You have to look at all that,� General Manager Elgin Baylor said. “But if a player you don’t feel can help your team is available . . . at a position you want (to fill), it would be foolish to take him. It might be at a different position, but someone that can help your team, you would take him.�

In other words: draft the best player available.

For the Clippers, that figures to include several guards, even though Mark Jackson and Ron Harper are set as starters. Terry Dehere of Seton Hall has quickness and the versatility to play both backcourt spots. And Tennessee’s Houston is regarded as the best outside shooter in the draft, although the Detroit Pistons might take him a few picks before the Clippers are up. Then there are point guards Van Exel of Cincinnati, Hunter of Jackson State and James Robinson of Alabama.

Mills, the former Fairfax High player, is also an excellent shooter and a good rebounder for a 6-foot-6 small forward. He would be the safe, solid pick the Clippers are looking to make.

No matter the selection, the Clippers will be the first team to go coach-less into the draft since Miami in 1988, before the Heat’s first season. The New York Knicks didn’t have a coach or a general manager in 1987, leaving it to chief scout Dick McGuire to select local favorite Jackson from St. John’s.

“It’s really funny,� Baylor said. “Now everyone is making a big deal out of (not having a coach). But if a coach was involved and the player didn’t work out, I would still get blamed for it.�

Baylor said he has received input on the draft from some of the Clippers’ coaching candidates.

Clipper Notes

Kendall Gill, within minutes of becoming a Clipper at February’s trade deadline, is much further away now. The Clippers and Charlotte have had conversations, but they did not progress far enough as of Tuesday night for the Hornets to request permission to talk to Danny Manning’s agent in hopes of talking contract, the first step to a trade. A more likely destination for Gill is Atlanta, except that the Hawks are trying to push Roy Hinson and Stacey Augmon, and the Hornets don’t want Hinson.

The Clippers will hold a draft party today at the Sports Arena, with free refreshments, admission and parking. Doors open at 3:30, about an hour before the first pick. . . . The exhibition schedule has not been released, but it is expected to include two games against Larry Brown and the Indiana Pacers. One, probably Oct. 21, will be at the Sports Arena and the other, about a week later, at Indianapolis.

The most recent offer to Ken Norman, who will become an unrestricted free agent Thursday, is five years at an average of $2.6 million annually, basically the same deal Mark Jackson signed in April. Norman did not dismiss the $13 million lightly, but figures he might as well test the market after going this far.