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Updated: February 23, 2004, 2:31 PM ET

Szczerbiak, Olowokandi strengthen team

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By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
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Wally Szczerbiak returned from injury exile Thursday night. Michael Olowokandi came back Friday night. Flip Saunders, meanwhile, insists he'll be smiling most nights.

That's Saunders' insistence no matter how many times someone suggests that mixing Wally and Kandi in now, after 50-odd games, is going to be some sort of problem.

Even though he's healthy, Wally Szczerbiak may have to get used to starting games on the bench.

Dare we say, as we said with the Sacramento Kings and Chris Webber, that the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to be fine.

Forget how good they've looked up until now. To win this new West -- and to get out of the first round, for starters -- they're going to need every available weapon. That's Szczerbiak, Olowokandi and Troy Hudson alongside Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell and Minnesota's best-ever cast of role-players: Gary Trent, Mark Madsen, Fred Hoiberg and Trenton Hassell.

Szczerbiak knows people are questioning how he'll accept a secondary role, in the wake of Sam I Am's jump to All-Star status, along with the presence of Sprewell and the defensive emergence of Hassell. I prefer to remember what Wally World told ESPN.com in October: "We've gotten so much out of the talent we've had here. We've proven the system works. The system's not changing, but now we've got better talent in the system. I'm telling you, we just want to win. We've won 50 games before, but I'm sick of losing in the playoffs, and I know KG is, too."

There's certainly a good chance Minnesota will elect to move Szczerbiak in the offseason, and Cleveland, which so desperately needs a shooter, would be wise to be first in line for the former Miami of Ohio star. But it's Flip's contention, which also has convinced us, that any potential headaches have been soothed by the way the Wolves started the season without the injured trio.

"I don't worry about it." Saunders said. "I've talked to all of them. When you get into the 40- or 50-game range, they're the ones who are going to have to make the adjustment. Are they going to come in and be starters? It's probably going to be pretty difficult. They're going to have to adjust their roles to the team. It's not the team adjusting to them."

Flip, furthermore, believes what they always say: Winning makes everything easier.

"It definitely is easier (for me)," Saunders said. "But I think guys will make the adjustment. It definitely gives us more weapons."

Wallace's future
Rasheed Wallace is the first player in NBA history to play one game for a team and score 20 points in that one game for the Atlanta Hawks. He will soon become just the fifth player in league history to score 20 points in a game for three teams in the same season.

That's the short-term stuff. Wallace's long-term future is more difficult to forecast because the Detroit Pistons did what they did to get 'Sheed on Thursday in large part to make it easier to re-sign Turkish center Mehmet Okur in the summer, not just to make a title run this season.

No less of a challenge than completing the 'Sheed trade is the idea that Joe Dumars can re-sign Okur and 'Sheed. And not just because 'Sheed has made it so clear that he has strong interest in signing with the New York Knicks.

Detroit now has the cap room necessary to match offers well over the $5 million mid-level exception to Okur, a restricted free agent-to-be. Problem is, to match any offer over the mid-level, the Pistons will have to dip into their cap room, which means one of two things: