There was no change in the top 6 places of RealGM.com's Player Rankings.

Kevin Garnett is at the top of the board yet again, with his per game averages of 23.6 points, 14.9 rebounds 6.2 assists and 1.9 blocks.

Lebron James maintained a firm hold on the second spot.

Dwayne Wade and Dirk Nowitzki are creeping up on Tim Duncan and could overtake his standing at anytime.

Rounding out the elite 8 are Suns teammates Shawn Marion and Amare Stoudemire, and Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.

The Seattle SuperSonics, with the best record in the NBA, don't have a single player in the top 23, as Ray Allen is ranked 24th.

Karl Malone had microfracture surgery on his right knee back in June and is expected to finally decide in about a month whether he will play this season.

Malone's agent recently said his client would prefer to stay in the Western Conference, which gained increased attention from teams such as San Antonio and Minnesota.

"I think every team in the league could use him and would want him?. He's getting offers, probably two or three a day," Buss said. "I am confident that if he plays, he'll be a Laker. He has said that publicly in the papers, and he has told me that personally as well."

The Lakers could offer Malone $1.8 million, and the Spurs could offer the veterans' minimum of $1.1 million. The Timberwolves would be in the neighborhood of the Lakers' $1.8-million offer.

All signs point towards Malone remaining with the Lakers, as he has been frequently spotted at the Staples Center.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have suspended center Michael Olowonkandi for a second game, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting.

"Michael will not play in tonight's game against Memphis as he will be suspended for a second and final game due to conduct that was detrimental to the team," vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale said in a statement released before Friday's game. "He will rejoin the Timberwolves and be available to play on the team's upcoming West Coast road trip that begins Sunday in Sacramento. We are hopeful that Michael can put this incident behind him and look forward to him helping us on the court for the remainder of the season."

Olowokandi was arrested by Indianapolis police at 3 a.m. Thanksgiving morning after refusing to leave a downtown nightclub. The police used a stun gun on Olowokandi twice before taking him into custody. He was released that afternoon, but was suspended for the Wolves' loss to the Pacers that night.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Michael Olowokandi was arrested early Thursday after police used a stun gun to subdue him when he refused to leave a club.

Olowokandi, 29, was taken into custody about 3 a.m. after he refused to leave Tiki Bob's, said Indianapolis Police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Staletovich.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, both misdemeanors, Staletovich said.

The center was suspended by the team for Thursday night's game against the Indiana Pacers for "conduct detrimental to the team," Timberwolves general manager Jim Stack said in a statement.

Ben Wallace and Larry Brown returned on Wednesday night from long absences.

Wallace returned from a nine-day absence and made his presence felt inside while Brown guided the team for the first time since the season opener as the Pistons posted a 93-85 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Wallace missed Detroit's last two contests following the death of his brother, and the Pistons dropped both games. He had seven points - including a key three-point play in the final minute - 10 rebounds and three blocks in helping the Pistons improve to 3-0 at home this season.

"My legs were a little bit fresher," Wallace said. "That's usually the way we play D, and we have to get back playing that way night in, night out."

Brown coached the team for the first time since opening night, when the squad celebrated its 2004 NBA title. Brown underwent left hip surgery the next day and had been sidelined ever since.

In picking up his 937th career victory - one shy of Hall of Famer Red Auerbach for fifth place on the all-time list - a limping Brown clearly was hampered by the procedure but managed to get Detroit's mini-slide turned around.

"(Pistons president Joe Dumars) told me I was the first coach to ever be a game-time decision," Brown said. "I was tired. I felt like I played."

With Eddy Curry requesting a trade, John Paxson is a busy GM.  He is receiving phone calls from a plethora of his colleagues trying to lure Curry away from Chicago.

Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Minnesota's Michael Olowokandi and Wally Szczerbiak, Phoenix's Bo Outlaw and the Knicks' Nazr Mohammed were some of the names offered, but Paxson kindly declined on those packages.

According to the New York Daily News, Paxson would be interested in dealing with the Knicks if they included Kurt Thomas or Mike Sweetney along with Mohammed.  If Curry goes to New York he will be yet another Bull to join Isiah's club.

The Miami Heat?s Dwyane Wade and Minnesota Timberwolves? Kevin Garnett were today named the Eastern Conference and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Tuesday, November 2 through Sunday, November 7.

Wade led the Heat to a perfect 3-0 start, averaging 28.7 points (2nd in the NBA) on .560 shooting, 6.3 rebounds and 7.7 assists in wins over New Jersey, Cleveland and Washington. Wade recorded career highs in both points (37) and assists (12) and grabbed eight rebounds against the Wizards. His 86 points in the first three contests tied a Heat franchise record, set by Alonzo Mourning in 1996-97, for most total points by a player in the first three games of the season.

Garnett led the Timberwolves to a 2-1 start, averaging 27.3 points, a league-high 16.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 3.0 blocks per game. He recorded double-doubles in all three contests and recorded his 24th career 20-point/20-rebound effort with 28 points and 20 rebounds against New York. Garnett recorded stellar performances in crunch time this week, shooting 71.4% from the field in fourth quarters and overtime in tight games against New York, Denver and New Orleans.

Eddie Griffin is ready to begin again as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, more than 18 months after the book seemed to close on his promising NBA career.

After serving a three-game league suspension for a drug conviction, Griffin should make his debut with the Timberwolves this week instead of watching them play on television. Coach Flip Saunders plans to rotate Griffin into the front court Tuesday when the Wolves play the Indiana Pacers at the Target Center.

It would be Griffin's first regular-season game since April 16, 2003, when he finished his second year with the Houston Rockets. The personal demons that have haunted Griffin since college derailed his career, though, and now he finds himself at a crossroads in Minnesota.

"I'm definitely excited about it. This is what I worked hard for all summer, to get back to play in the NBA," Griffin said after practicing Sunday at the Target Center. "It definitely did a lot by making the team. But you've still got to prove that I'm going to get through the season, do the right thing on and off the court."

Rebounding and shot blocking are natural assets for Griffin, 6 feet 10 and 232 pounds. Discipline has been more elusive. The seventh overall draft pick out of Seton Hall in 2001 has been convicted of marijuana possession, was indicted for assault, jailed for violating curfew, and treated in the past year for alcohol dependency and depression.

Now that Latrell Sprewell made it known that the Wolves' contract extension offer to him was for $21 million over three years, it seemed curious that Sprewell himself has only been talking about a two-year deal.

"I don't know if I want to play after two more years," he said before the Nuggets game. "So I'm not going for three years. I'll evaluate [after two] if I want to play after that."

Minnesota beat Denver last season in the first round of the playoffs in a five-game series, and neither team seemed to forget the animosity, jawing at each other from the start.

Kevin Garnett and Francisco Elson, two of the antagonists from last season, picked up where they left off in the third quarter, yelling at each other after Elson hit Garnett in the face on a hard foul.

It heated up even more late in the fourth, when Minnesota's Sam Cassell was ejected for throwing the ball at Kenyon Martin, who had shoved Cassell for a hard foul on Earl Boykins.

"This isn't a rivalry," said Cassell, who had six points on 3-of-14 shooting. "It would be a rivalry if they had beaten us more, but they only beat us today and that's just one game so far. We respect them and they respect us, but there isn't any bad blood."