The Los Angeles Clippers will come to Honolulu to play two exhibition games, but what they might look like when they get here is becoming anybody’s guess.

Back in December, when the ground-breaking agreement with the Hawaii Tourism Authority was announced, the Clippers were 16-6 and there was excitement about the prospect of seeing Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, J.J. Redick and the ascendant Clippers in the Stan Sheriff Center for two October exhibition games against the Toronto Raptors.

It is still an attraction to look forward to, but now there is the mounting drama about just how many of them might actually appear here this fall.

What is shaping up to be the most pivotal summer in the franchise’s history will soon start to get interesting due to the number of potential moving pieces. Four players, including Redick, are headed into free agency, and four others, including Griffin and Paul, can take advantage of opt-out clauses in their contracts to become unrestricted free agents.

Following the Clippers’ second annual first-round playoff flame-out, the team has a lot of questions to answer about its future. Foremost among them being: Does owner Steve Ballmer open wide his wallet to retain Griffin, Paul and Redick as the foundation of the franchise? And, if he doesn’t — or is unable to retain them — who do the Clippers have on their free-agent shopping list to fill out the lineup?

Call it the $600,000 question locally, representing the amount the HTA is paying the Clippers to become what the contract terms “an official partner of the LA Clippers.”

Under the agreement, the Clippers will hold a week-long training camp here, play the two exhibition games and participate in a “Fan Fest.”

In addition the HTA gets various, TV, radio and online promotional spots, court-side and arena signage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a “Hawaii Night” event and various social media posts to promote tourism.

The deal — HTA’s third-largest sports sponsorship behind the Pro Bowl ($5.25 million) and Sony Open ($625,000) — gives the HTA an additional hook in Southern California, its biggest market for visitors. And it positions the Clippers to fill the void left by their LA rivals, the Lakers, who regularly made UH their training camp home. Between 1988 and 2015, the Lakers appeared here 13 times, prompting the team’s ownership to compare Hawaii to a “second home.”

But the Lakers are scheduled to hold their 2017 — and future — training camps closer to home in El Segundo, Calif., where a 120,000-square-foot facility at the UCLA Health Training Center is to open this summer.

With options for three additional years, the Clippers could become regular visitors.

The Clippers were on a roll when the HTA agreement was announced in December but fell on harder times down the stretch in a 51-31 finish that concluded with the thud of the first-round playoff elimination.

Griffin’s toe injury, for which he underwent surgery this week, exacerbated the Clippers’ slide and has prompted questions about his durability.

Throw in the retirement of Paul Pierce, free agency for Raymond Felton, Alan Anderson and Brandon Bass and the Clippers have some decisions to make before the July 1 free-agent sweepstakes gets underway. Meanwhile, there are some some big names who might become available with intriguing possibilities, such as Carmelo Anthony and Paul George, the Clippers could chase with the former Microsoft CEO’s money to fill the pukas.

Come this summer, we find out who the HTA’s “partners” will really be going forward.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.