LOS ANGELES -- Half the team is injured and opening night is only two weeks away.

Less than half of their games will be televised locally even though everyone wants to watch them play.

Then there's the ultimate contradiction: This promising team of up-and-comers opens the season with a win-now sense of veteran urgency, because no one expects the group to be together very long.

	Lamar Odom won't return from an ankle injury until December.

Makes it hard, scanning through all that, to make the case that this is a new day in Clipperdom.

But it really is, at least for the next 82 games, even with the disclaimer that history says the newness won't last. Today's Los Angeles Clippers are wildly popular. They are worried about the uncertain future, but it's because they want to stay as compared to the rush of yesteryear's Clippers to flee. Their stockpiling of young talent is viewed as a blueprint by rival clubs faced with rebuilding, and the occupants of the other home locker room at Staples Center believe they can and will win.

Now.

Win now -- in spite of the aforementioned contradictions and other inconsistencies, mainly the idea that this precocious team is actually too deep to stay harmonious.

"Anything less than the playoffs is an underachievement for the talent we have," said Clippers forward Elton Brand. "I'm not saying we're the best team in the NBA, but we're very talented. And I think the better the team does, most everybody -- if not everybody -- will be happy at the end of this thing."

As with roughly 28 other teams in the NBA halfway through October, the Clippers are reasonably pleased at the minute, even not knowing whether Brand and Michael Olowokandi will be able to play opening night. The injuries have proven a deeper distraction than musings about the future so far, with Brand, Kandi and Quentin Richardson all sidelined by knee trouble. Lamar Odom (ankle) remains out until December, rookies Melvin Ely (toe) and Chris Wilcox (quad) are also hobbling, and Keyon Dooling (ankle) practiced Tuesday for the first time in months.

Yet even with only a few rotation regulars available, it's easy to pinpoint the source of coach Alvin Gentry's optimism. It's his point guards. Plural. Andre Miller is the elite quarterback the Clips have never had. And backup Marko Jaric -- nabbed one spot after the Lakers drafted Mark Madsen at No. 30 overall in 2000 -- stands out even more in an NBA game than he did in Indianapolis for Team Yugoslavia as a 6-foot-7 point who handles and moves the ball so freely.

Even when they were making a playoff run last season, before falling short at 39-43, Gentry's men weren't a happy group. Jeff McInnis had a career year running the club but he also had a negative aura and a shoot-first mentality that had LA ready to let him walk to Portland with or without a Miller trade.

It might be a bit much to expect Miller, having never been in the playoffs and never having won more than 32 games in an NBA season, to supply all the serenity. But Gentry is hopeful Miller can and believes the Clippers' first winning season since 1991-92 awaits, in the face of any down-the-road uncertainty.

Gentry is also banking on the belief that winning regularly is going to keep the peace -- even when Odom eventually returns to challenge Brand and Miller for team leadership -- because the Clips have never won more than 45 games as an LA entity. He suspects his players are going to like the feeling.

"It's been very frustrating with all the injuries, because we haven't been able to put a group on the floor that's probably going to end up playing a lot of minutes for us," Gentry said. "Obviously, for us to be a good team, we're going to have to have Elton Brand and Michael Olowokandi and Lamar Odom and all of those guys out there and playing at a high level.

"But I tell everybody this: I don't think anybody has higher expectations of this team than me and the coaching staff and these players. We expect to do well. The most important thing is for us to get healthy."

That said, there are other to-dos as well. Finding some shooting remains a major priority. The deadly Eric Piatkowski, already on a nice wavelength with Miller, is the only dependable source of perimeter scoring. It could keep him in the starting lineup ahead of Richardson.

Late-game execution is another weakness. For all their long-armed ability to harass teams defensively and big-body potential to score down low, the Clips went 0-5 in overtime games last season and 4-8 in games decided by three or fewer points. No better, basically, than they handled crunch time in the previous 31-51 season.

	“	The one thing I've talked to them about and let them know is, I understand their situation and I'm sympathetic to their situation. But that if we can take care of business (by winning), everything will fall into place. ”
		— Alvin Gentry

Of greatest importance, of course, is the mounting pressure on Gentry to establish a set rotation to reduce the grumbling variable. On strictly talent, the Clippers are arguably the fifth-best team in the West, so deep (haven't even mentioned Corey Maggette yet) that they could sacrifice Darius Miles to get Miller and still overflow at the swing positions and big forward. Privately, to stay on the conservative side, they're gunning for the No. 6 seed, figuring that Portland's experience makes the Trail Blazers a better bet for No. 5.

Ironically, though, the Clippers' roster overload sets up comparisons with Portland that aren't so flattering. The implosion kind.

"I'm just worried about coaching the team this year and winning as many games as possible this year," Gentry said. "Anything else that happens after that, I'll deal with and the players will deal with it as it comes.

"The one thing I've talked to them about and let them know is, I understand their situation and I'm sympathetic to their situation. But that if we can take care of business (by winning), everything will fall into place."

Gentry's job would be so much easier if the inimitably frugal Donald T. Sterling had properly compensated just one star free agent in his two decades of ownership, just so someone could tell the players that it has actually happened before. Instead, Gentry might have the toughest job in the league massaging minutes this side of Mo Cheeks.

Which means Gentry is just like the rest of the Clippers. Coaching for his future instead of playing for it, but intent on enjoying these new, good times as long as they last.

"If we can be healthy, there's no telling what can happen," Miller insists. Asked if he realizes how thankful his new teammates are to have him around, Miller adds: "I'm grateful to be playing with some athletic, smart, hard-nosed players."

Said Brand: "It's a fact -- everyone looks at the past here to try to predict the future. It's easier to go rebound and play D and play a role when you're set for a few years. But you just can't think about it. I'm not upset (about not landing a contract extension over the summer). This is my fourth year and I haven't been to the playoffs yet. That's my goal."

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at marc.stein@espn3.com.