Teams around the league are already eyeing Kevin Garnett, a solid citizen but one whose time in Minnesota may be passing, if it hasn't already passed.

The Timberwolves are on a downswing and Garnett wore down trying to carry them last season. He didn't like losing Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell and Coach Flip Saunders and, coincidentally or not, was a no-show at a team luncheon for local civic leaders.

"Kevin knew he was supposed to be there yesterday," Coach Dwane Casey told the local media. "It was not a big issue. For me it's a dead subject?. It wasn't a thing out of defiance. It wasn't a thing out of, 'Oh, I'm going to show them this.' It was a thing he didn't make it to. No big deal."

Garnett, in less of a hurry to explain it away, wouldn't say what it was. A year ago, Cassell and Sprewell skipped the same function, although Casey noted, "You had two guys negotiating contracts. Kevin, last time I checked, is signed."