Wayne Ellington and Nate Jawai didn't make the trip to Dallas this afternoon because of sprained ankles sustained in Monday's practice and both probably won't play until Monday's rematch with the Mavs at Target Center at the earliest.
Neither practiced this afternoon before the team flew south for Wednesday's game against the Mavs, winners of eight straight and surging since they acquired Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood from Washington.
Al Jefferson, of course, isn't going and won't play because of that two-game team suspension for his weekend drunken-driving arrest.
The Wolves went and suspended him rather than wait for the legal process to run its course and for the NBA to do it, as Sacramento did with Andres Nocioni.
Nocioni was arrested on a DUI charge in November but not suspended for two-game until today and after he had pleaded no contest .
Also, did you see?:
* Looks like Chicago is going to re-sign former Timberwolf Chris Richard again because bigs Joakim Noah, Brad Miller and forward Luol Deng are banged up.
* ESPN.com's John Hollinger and Chad Ford teamed up to do their Future Power Rankings, a look at how they think teams will fare in the three seasons beyong this one.
No. 1?
Oklahoma City.
How other young teams in the West rank:
No. 5: Portland
No. 14: Clippers
No. 19: Sacramento
No. 23: Memphis
No. 27: Wolves
No. 28: Golden State
Washington and Charlotte are Nos. 29 and 30.
Heck, even New Jersey is No. 18 based on its lottery chances, cap space, incoming new owner and Brook Lopez's presence.
Here's the link to their rankings:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=FuturePowerRankings-1-100302
