You can't put the blame for this at the feet of Sterling

Look at it from Brand's standpoint.

If his opt-out had come up two seasons ago, the year the Clippers reached the second round of the playoffs, there's no way he would have left.

If his opt-out had come last summer after they fell from 47-35 to 40-42, who knows what would have happened?

Brand's opt-out came up this summer after a season that was all but canceled by his injury and that of Shaun Livingston. Worse, with Coach Mike Dunleavy in Sterling's doghouse, their front office was paralyzed.

Needing a point guard, they passed on a chance to get Beno Udrih for $300,000.

Then they passed up a trade which would have brought Memphis' Mike Miller for expiring contracts and their No. 1 pick, with Dunleavy unable even to make his case to Sterling.

You may remember Brand tried to get out of here before, in 2003 when he signed a Miami offer sheet. The Clippers had the right to match and although Brand reportedly begged Sterling not to match the offer, he did.

Sentenced to five years here, Brand never uttered a word of complaint and, lo and behold, three years later, found himself in the playoffs with the Clippers.

The Brand Era started in 2001, in the Bad Old Days when the Clippers never came up with the money and lost all their free agents.

In Brand's time, things changed for the better -- which is how he got his big contract along with the ones the Clippers gave Maggette, Chris Kaman, Cuttino Mobley, Tim Thomas and Davis.

With the departure of their low-post threat and the arrival of Davis with Al Thornton and Eric Gordon, the Clippers now want to turn it up but how well that works remains to be seen.

Sterling is over his snit at Dunleavy but where they go from here, to a new tomorrow or an all-too-familiar yesterday, remains to be seen too. Wherever it is, it'll be without Elton Brand.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com