His Brand of Talent Is Going Unnoticed

You could stock a roster with the players missing from Saturday’s game and it would be favored to win the championship.

Now, can we take a timeout from all of the talk about who wasn’t on the floor for the Lakers and Clippers and focus on one guy who was?

He’s the guy who had 35 points and 20 rebounds for the Clippers on Saturday night.

The name is Elton Brand. You don’t see it on too many replica jerseys. It doesn’t appear on any signature shoes. It has been punched on fewer all-star ballots than Malik Rose (who doesn’t start) and Chris Webber (who hasn’t played).

Ask any coach in the league what he wants in a player and he probably won’t name Elton Brand -- but he’ll describe all of the qualities Brand possesses.

“He’ll give you tremendous effort night in and night out,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “He does most things right most nights....

“A guy that really wants to win. He’s a winner. He’s attentive. He really wants to do it. All teams that want to be really good teams have to have a top guy who is that way. Elton’s definitely that way.”

He plays ball in a style that doesn’t make highlights. He lives life in a non-scandalous way that doesn’t make headlines. All he does is produce like an assembly line.

Do 19 points and 12 rebounds a game work for you?

Do you know the names of the only two guys who provide better numbers in both categories every night?

Try Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan. Heard of them?

Brand doesn’t have Garnett’s talent or Duncan’s mastery of the fundamentals.

Just don’t tell him that he’s has maxed out his talent.

That’s what they told him in Peekskill, N.Y. They said he better study hard, because he didn’t have a future in basketball.

So he went to Duke University. On a basketball scholarship. He was the best player on a team that went to the Final Four and won the Wooden Award for player of the year. As a sophomore.

They said Brand didn’t measure up at the NBA’s pre-draft camp, because he was 6 feet 8 and shrinking.

That didn’t keep the Bulls from drafting him with the first overall pick. Didn’t stop him from sharing the rookie-of-the-year award with Steve Francis.

How does he keep surpassing expectations?

“You work hard,” Brand said. “You put in the work. You always want to be known as a solid player, a good player. You don’t ever want to hear someone saying, ‘He’s robbing the league.’ ”

And when Donald Sterling picks you as the guy he rewards with the richest contract in franchise history, you’d better live up to it.

“You get a big deal or any deal -- medium-size, whatever -- you want to earn it. You want your team to win and you want to put up solid numbers in whatever you do.”If Garnett is the superstar who can’t get past the first round, Brand is the star who can’t get to the playoffs.

No player in this league, not even Duncan or Shaquille O’Neal, can do it on his own. On a night Brand posted a season high in points and matched his season high in rebounds, the Clippers lost to the Lakers, 91-89.

Not even the best from their best was enough.

The Best Clipper. It’s not a title anyone sets as their lifetime goal; sort of like NIT champion.

Brand never asked to be in this position. He came here in a trade from Chicago in 2001, and he tried to bolt to the Miami Heat as a restricted free agent last summer, until the Clippers kept him in town by matching the five-year, $82-million offer.

Can you blame Brand for wanting out? Why would anyone want to spend the prime of his career playing for Sterling?

You almost wouldn’t blame Brand for sulking, despite the millions, after a summer that also saw Lamar Odom, Andre Miller, Eric Piatkowski and Michael Olowokandi leave.

That just isn’t his way. He could have checked out last season, when he had a stress fracture in his lower left leg, the team wasn’t going anywhere and free agency was looming. But he didn’t shut it down, he came back and played.

On opening night of this season he had 21 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots even though it turned out he had a stress fracture in his right foot. But after missing 13 games he is back to his old self.

And receiving the same amount of attention. Shouldn’t a guy this good playing in this town get a few more commercials, some more acting gigs ... something?

“I’ve been on a little sitcom here and there,” said Brand, whose credits include “Arli$$.”

“I do a movie cameo here and there.”

“Until we win, get to the playoffs ... that’s what happens.... That’s how it should be.”

Actually, Brand said he did have another guest appearance coming up.

“ ‘The Stones,’ ” he said. “It’s a new CBS thing. Check it out.”

He isn’t an action hero, he isn’t the villain. “I played myself,” Brand said. “Like always.”

It’s a good role. One that deserves to win more accolades.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.