With an overflow at point guard, the Minnesota Timberwolves reassigned Bracey Wright to the Florida Flame of the NBA Development League on Tuesday.

Wright began the season with the Flame and was recalled on Jan. 10. He made his debut on Jan. 24 and averaged 3.0 points and 4.0 minutes in two appearances.

Last week's seven-player trade with the Boston Celtics brought the Timberwolves yet another point guard in Marcus Banks, who had an impressive debut on Monday night against his former team with 20 points and six assists.

Though Wright played shooting guard in college at Indiana, the Wolves see him as a point guard in the NBA. But with Banks, Marko Jaric, Troy Hudson and Anthony Carter already on the roster, there was no room for Wright.

Coach Dwane Casey elected to send their second-round draft pick to the NBDL to get more playing time. He has averaged 21.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 16 games for the Flame this season.

The fans began Monday night by giving Wally Szczerbiak a standing ovation.

By halftime at Target Center, they were on their feet applauding the new-look Timberwolves.

Szczerbiak scored a game-high 22 points in his return after being traded Thursday to the Boston Celtics. But the Wolves dominated as their new acquisitions pushed them to a 19-point halftime lead en route to a 110-85 victory, the team's most lopsided win this season.

Marcus Banks showed in his Wolves debut that he is the quickest point guard the franchise has had in years. Banks, generously listed at 6 feet 2, darted and squirted his way to 20 points and six assists, season bests in both categories.

At least on this night, it was hard to tell why he lost his backup point-guard role with the Celtics before he was traded to Minnesota.

"I think the fans, when I got traded, they were like, 'Who is this guy?' " Banks said. "But I'm pretty sure the coaching staff knew what they were getting."

The last thing Minnesota coach Dwayne Casey wants is for Marcus Banks to wind up on the fast track out of town. Banks, a point guard, was a less-heralded component of the trade. His name was in a ton of trade rumors before he wound up in Minnesota.

The speculation hasn't subsided since he arrived a couple of days ago.

"A lot of friends around the league are calling," Casey said after the lopsided win over Boston. "They want him."

So does Casey.

"I'm sure his name will come up," Casey said. "He has great value around the league. But I like him. He was the key to the trade, I think."

Even though he hasn't been here long, it's clear that he is by far the quickest point guard on the squad. In just more than 21 minutes Monday night, he scored 20 points and passed for six assists. He makes the Wolves' other point guards appear flat-footed.

"He is one of the quickest guys with the ball in the league," Casey said.

"I'm a basketball player," said Banks, who understands he might not have found a permanent home here. "I understand this is a business."

The Timberwolves' first half of the season fell well short of their goals.

The most striking admission of that mediocrity came when they traded Wally Szczerbiak, a longtime fan favorite who was having a career season, to the Boston Celtics on Thursday.

As they prepare to face Szczerbiak and the Celtics tonight at Target Center, the Wolves are desperate to fix their season, plagued by inconsistency and the inability to win close games. With the team struggling at 19-21 at the time of the trade, Szczerbiak became the casualty.

"If we had won a number of those close games, we probably wouldn't have thought about doing the trade," owner Glen Taylor said. "Looking at the results, which were below our expectations, we felt we had to do something. Wally was a player other teams wanted."

Minnesota failed to get Ron Artest, turned down a chance to get Steve Francis and instead, took on Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, each of whom were regarded as a cancer in Boston. It proves that Kevin McHale still has a soft spot in his heart for his old team. Now with Wally Szczerbiak, the Celtics have the flexibility to deal off Paul Pierce.

The Seattle SuperSonics are involved in numerous discussions around the NBA to trade power forward Reggie Evans, according to three sources.

Less than a week ago, Evans? agent, Dan Fegan, told The News Tribune he had approached Sonics general manager Rick Sund and asked that Evans be traded if there was no role for him with coach Bob Hill now in control.

In an attempt to appease Evans, sources say, Sund has been talking with several teams to try to get something in return for the 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward.

Sund declined to get into specifics, saying, ?I have always told the players I would keep any trade discussions about them confidential.?

One source said he thinks Evans will be dealt within a week; another indicated that nothing is likely to happen until it gets closer to the Feb. 23 trading deadline.

Either way, it seems clear that the career of the league?s best rebounder per minute is over in Seattle. Evans was the only healthy player not to get off the bench in the Sonics? loss to Dallas on Thursday night.

Two sources said Sund has been talking with Minnesota, where former Sonics associate head coach Dwane Casey has an eye on Evans. One source said a package could include Evans and Ronald Murray for newly acquired Marcus Banks, who came over in the trade that sent Wally Szczerbiak to Boston. However, another source said that trade is not likely to happen, even though the salaries match.

Ricky Davis certainly wasn't shy in his Timberwolves debut.

Davis scored 26 points Friday night in his first game since the Wolves shook up the roster Thursday by acquiring him in a seven-player trade with Boston. The result: Wolves 96, Houston Rockets 92.

Davis said he didn't know what to expect in his first game but said he didn't feel any jitters after arriving the same day from Boston.

"I felt comfortable on my way over here on the plane," Davis said. "I was ready."

His line: 10-of-18 shooting, 5 for 5 on free throws and six rebounds in 36 minutes.

Timberwolves all-star Kevin Garnett clarified a few things about his relationship with Wally Szczerbiak in the wake of Thursday night's blockbuster deal that sent Szczerbiak to the Boston Celtics.

Garnett said he and Szczerbiak weren't best friends, but they weren't enemies.

The day after the struggling Wolves traded Szczerbiak for Ricky Davis as part of a seven-player deal, Garnett said he hated to see Szczerbiak go, despite a long-held perception that the two have stood in opposite corners for most of their 6? seasons together in Minnesota.

"We're two totally different people from two totally different parts of the earth," Garnett said Friday before Minnesota's game at Houston against the Rockets. "I think people are wanting it to be more than what it really was. It wasn't like we hated each other. We spoke every day, said what's up, had conversations, cracked jokes, just like any other teammate in here. Basketball-wise, came in, did what we had to do to get a win. Sometimes we didn't get it. We're both competitive."

The perceived rift between the players has been scrutinized since Garnett and Szczerbiak had a scuffle in the team's training room in November 2000.

But they coexisted amicably over the years. Garnett invited Szczerbiak to the U.S. Open tennis championship last summer in New York.

"I've never had (a) beef with World," Garnett said. "Personally, we were teammates. We understood that. I understood that. As the primary (option) on this team, I felt it was my responsibility to have the ball come through me, and I consolidated and distributed to everybody. I don't know if World was bothered by that."

Szczerbiak told the Associated Press that he did not believe the perceived problems between himself and Garnett prompted the trade.

"Who knows?" Szczerbiak said. "K.G. and I have been teammates for seven years. I've learned a lot from him. ? Now we're moving on and breaking apart."

The Celtics have reached agreement tonight on a trade that sends Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed and two future second-round draft picks to Minnesota for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi and rookie Dwayne Jones and a conditional first-round pick.

The deal constitutes a dramatic change for the Celts, who have struggled to a 17-25 record. Davis had been leading the team in minutes played (fourth in the league at 41.6) and was the team?s second leading scorer at 19.7 behind Paul Pierce.

Szczerbiak is the key pickup for the Celts. He?s averaging 20.1 points and is a 41 percent shooter from behind the 3-point line.

The Phoenix Suns today acquired Minnesota forward Nikoloz Tskitishvili, who played for current Suns Head Coach Mike D?Antoni for Italian club Benetton Treviso in 2001-02, in exchange for the club?s 2006 second-round draft pick.

?If there is an ideal coach and ideal system for Skita to do well, it?s here in Phoenix with Mike D?Antoni,? Suns President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo said.

In his only season with D?Antoni as an 18-year-old, Tskitishvili, now 22, averaged 6.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and shot over 73-percent on two-point field goal attempts in 11 games with Benetton Treviso.  Shortly thereafter, the Nuggets selected the early entry candidate in the first round (5th overall) of the 2002 NBA Draft, four picks before the Suns chose Amar? Stoudemire with the ninth overall pick. The Republic of Georgia native also played two professional seasons in Slovenia with KK Slovan from 1999-2001.

Tskitishvili, a 7-0, 225-pound forward, has averaged 3.0 points, 1.8 rebounds and 11.6 minutes per game in 160 career games over four NBA seasons with the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and most recently the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he saw limited action in five games in 2005-06.

Last season Tskitishvili appeared in 35 games (1.4 points, 1.2 rebounds, 6.2 minutes) split between Denver and Golden State. He was traded by the Nuggets to Golden State on Feb. 24, 2005 along with Rodney White in exchange for Eduardo Najera, Luis Flores and a future first-round pick (from Dallas in 2007).

Tskitishvili signed as a free agent with the Timberwolves on August 9, 2005 after averaging 13.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in 13.0 minutes per game in two contests for the Timberwolves? entry in the 2005 Minnesota Summer League. He posted 25 points and 10 rebounds in 17 minutes vs. Milwaukee on July 15, but played just nine minutes on July 16 vs. New York before breaking the third metacarpal in his right hand.

The Suns roster now stands at 14. Tskitishvili will wear No. 15.