Clippers to quickly, quietly sign Blake Griffin to 5-year max extension

This is about as much of a surprise as Tom Cruise burning through another marriage.

The Clippers top July 1 free agent priority will be signing star forward Blake Griffin to a max extension to his rookie deal. And it sounds like that is going to happen no problem, reports Ramona Shelburne at ESPNLosAngeles.com.

The Clippers remain confident they will be able to sign Griffin to a five-year maximum extension in July. Sources with knowledge of the talks say they have gone smoothly so far and neither side anticipates any problems getting the extension done and agreed upon by July 1. Don’t expect much fanfare from Griffin though. He’ll likely just walk into the Clippers’ practice the facility the next day the way Kevin Durant did in Oklahoma City a few years ago.

There was never any question Griffin was going to sign an extension to his rookie deal. He wants to get paid, and he gets to do it in a major market with all the endorsement and marketing advantages that come with it. Plus, the team seems to be building a winner around him (they need to re-sign Chris Paul next summer, too, and that may be the bigger question mark).

And if you know Griffin, you know he is pretty soft spoken. He’ll take this in stride.

Griffin will be in Las Vegas after July 4 trying to earn a spot in London on the U.S. Olympic team. By then he should have a new, much richer contract signed.

• In one other Clippers note, the Clippers are not expected to make offers to retain crowd favorite Reggie Evans as well as Kenyon Martin. Both will be unrestricted free agents.