For Timberwolves observers, the NBA conference finals surely have a haunting quality. It is not just that the Wolves remain nowhere near the rarefied air of the NBA's final four.

It is the haunting presence of Terrell (Stop and Pop) Brandon.

Look at the Pistons, and you see the dogged Chauncey Billups, the guard who was only allowed to raise his profile in Minnesota because Brandon could not play.

Look at the Nets, and you see the incomparable Jason Kidd, the guard New Jersey was able to acquire only because it had the petulant but promising Stephon Marbury, whom the desperate Wolves had sent eastward as part of a three-way deal that landed Brandon in Minnesota.